Darker Ever After
by Princess Shahrazad
Summary: A modern gothic retelling of 'Tangled'. Bonus Chapter. A parallel universe ending for Eugene and Rapunzel. Now complete.
1. Prologue

**PROLOGUE**

1993

A tall woman stood in front of the Corona University Bookshop, her long wavy black hair flailing in the fierce late autumn wind. She clutched the collar of her long black coat close to her throat. The cold wind was biting but she could not enter the university bookshop just yet. A long bus had grunted its way from the main road and stopped in front of the shop with a loud clanking sound. Two harassed looking women waited at the door of the bookshop and yelled on the top of their voices.

"Okay children! Time's up! Time to get on the bus."

"Make your payment! Stationeries only. No books. You'll have books for Christmas. But not now."

The tall woman, her wavy hair streaming, watched as children ranging from six years old until their teens filed out of the cramped bookstore with dejected faces. One boy of about six, with straight shoulder length hair passed the two wardens. One of the women held him by his shoulders.

"Eugene Fitzherbert. Did you take anything out? A copy of _The Tales of Flynn Rider_ perhaps?" She asked him and started frisking his body. They found nothing.

"No, ma'am," the boy said and he was let go.

As the boy walked on, two bigger boys who were behind him, twins, one with lazy eyes and another with scarred chin, punched the scrawny brown haired boy at his kidneys. The little boy Eugene retaliated. He pushed the one with lazy eyes with all his body weight and the two crashed on to the sidewalk. The woman in the long black coat jumped and managed to evade contact. She cursed under her breath. Hooligans, she said. The two wardens held the two boys back and let the bigger boy on the bus first. After the rest of the children boarded the bus, the boy Eugene was seated at the front with the wardens.

And so ended the woman's wait, as the wards of the Children of Magdalene's Orphanage headed back to misery. The bookshop was then empty, five minutes before closing time. The woman's thankless shift at the Grimmney Theme Park ended at 6.30 p.m and she had rushed to the bookshop. She went straight to the door of the office as she took out a folded paper, a rejection slip from the pocket of her long coat. A pregnant woman, probably a store worker saw her and she said to the pregnant woman.

"I want to see Algernon Kingsley, the editor?"

"Do you have an appointment?" The pregnant woman asked.

"Yes, I spoke to him on the phone."

"I think he's free now," the woman said and opened to door to the office for her.

"Thank you."

A tired looking, but otherwise handsome man took off his reading glasses and looked up from a manuscript he was reading.

"May I help you?" He said to the tall woman.

"I spoke to you on the phone this morning. About the manuscript _Darker Ever After_.

"Miss Bathory?" He asked, his memory absolutely jogged by the title.

"Gothel. Just Gothel, please," the woman said uneasily.

"Gothel. Let me see. As you can see that I received a lot of manuscripts –" the man walked towards head tall piles of open mouth-thick manuscripts and fished out one amongst many, placed at chest high.

"_Darker Ever After_ by Gothel Bathory'' he said.

Gothel's heart jumped when she saw her own handiwork. The manuscript looked different now in a different setting. Like a child one lost for years and then one found her again. But one knew how the child looked like and one knew the child was hers even though now that the child looked slightly different, she thought.

"Let me see, I've written down some notes," Algernon Kingsley uttered carelessly.

Gothel waited in bated breath.

"Too racy, excessive use of violence, inherent feeling of darkness, evil triumphs over good – unsuitable for the publisher's vision in publication," Algernon Kingsley said, reading from the notes he scribbled on the cover of the manuscript.

"I'm sorry, Miss Bathory," he looked up as he said that.

Gothel did not stop him now from calling her 'Miss Bathory'.

"But after careful deliberation, we've decided that your manuscript is not suitable for publication by the university press."

"Can't it be edited?" Gothel asked.

"I'm afraid the elements we deemed inappropriate are in every part of the story. It is impossible to cut them out and replace them without losing the story's originality."

"But I took a long time to write it! Years!" Gothel gasped, almost in tears.

"I'm sorry, Miss Bathory," Algernon Kingsley said and continued, "but you can always find opportunity in other publishing houses. I'm returning you the manuscript for your own further use."

The thick bound papers felt dead and cold in Gothel's hand. She left the office shaken and pale, thinking about the endless years she was going to spend at the Grimmney Theme Park, picking up after thrown rubber ducks and tidying up the costume room. A slave to madness. In her mind, she was a minion of a skeletal construction that threw dark shadows at night after everything closed and the lights turned off.

The woman who spoke to her before she entered the office smiled at her.

"What did Al say to you?"

"Uh," Gothel was too traumatized to answer.

"Are you a writer?" The woman continued asking.

"Yes," Gothel said after gaining her balance.

"I'm too. My husband Al is the editor. But he's studying for his Ph.D now. He's hoping to run the university press and then became the academic staff as well. He's very ambitious. In his imagination, he wants to become some sort of a publishing royalty, with me alongside him. Pfff!"

"I see," Gothel simmered. Oh, ever the happy couple are you? She whispered bitterly in her heart.

"What do you write?" The woman asked.

"Fiction," Gothel answered.

"I write motivational books. But I think deep down inside, writers think the same no matter what genre they write," she said and continued.

"Words are magical. Words are power," the woman said dreamily. Feeling without magic and powerless, Gothel decided to change the topic.

"How far along are you?"

"Anytime now. Our first child!" the woman answered excitedly.

"My name's Anna. Pleased to meet you -?"

"Bathory," Gothel answered coldly.

"Any relations?" The woman asked in an effort to be funny which failed terribly.

"Who knows?" Gothel replied and then demurred,"No, I'm just joking."

The two women laughed. One in pure dramatics and another nervously.

Gothel stepped out of the bookshop and faced the strong wind. The wind brought rain with it. It soaked into her manuscript and ruined the ink print. She threw the whole manuscript into the nearest rubbish bin and wailed like a banshee. Her wailing went unheard, swallowed in the building gale, as the sky was darkening with her anger.

You _destroyed my dream. And I'm going to destroy yours!_ Gothel seethed. She seethed and simmered all the way as she walked back to her cold and barren apartment.


	2. Prisoner

**Chapter 1: Prisoner**

2011 

The rain was hammering against the window pane in sheets. But the wetness suddenly stopped in a burst of fierce wind. Rapunzel watched from the fourth floor of the apartment the people on the sidewalks struggling against the rain and the wind. They were torn apart between crossing the street in wetness and fighting against the wind all the same. _I'm grateful to be in here, where I'm safe and warm_, she said in her heart.

Rapunzel gasped sharply when a sudden burst of wind slapped a piece of paper on the glass right in front of her face. The wetness of the window pane made the piece of paper stick onto the glass. Rapunzel could see the words and pictures printed in colour on the paper.

_University of Corona: Medieval Weekend!_

_ Highlights – Kingdom Dance, Jousting, The Autumn Fair, Floating Lanterns down the River Leith..._

Carefully, Rapunzel loosened the lever that holds the window close and held out her arm through the flowery patterned black metal grille to fish the paper. Thankfully her thin white arms allowed her to reach the shuddering piece of paper and she pulled it in. Rapunzel refastened the lever and closed the window. She now had the whole world in her hands. She read the words on the leaflet.

_ The Vice Chancellor Professor Algernon Kingsley invites the public for two days of medieval merry-making this weekend. The programme will climax with the launching of floating lanterns down the river Leith as the Vice Chancellor pledges for public awareness toward cases of missing children._

_*Every aspect of environmental safety has been taken into consideration in the matter of the floating lanterns. A security net will be rigged before the lanterns can get into greater body of water. All cleaning process is going to be carried out by students volunteer and will be arranged before the next morning._

_ Ah, so that explains the annual lights floating along the river Leith_, her heart exclaimed joyfully.

At the bottom of the leaflet was a photo of a baby with emerald green eyes and dark brown hair. The words _Rachel Kingsley - missing since 1993_, were written under the picture. Next to the baby picture was a photo of teenage girl with the same emerald green eyes and brown hair, now grown to shoulder length. Underneath the photo was written _Rachel Kingsley, 2011 (computer generated age progression)_. Rachel noticed that the girl has a heart shaped face like hers and brown hair like hers too. But Rachel Kingsley looked absolutely pretty and beautiful, so much unlike her because of the pinkish glow in her computer generated complexion. While Rapunzel had pasty white skin due to being indoors all her life, never venturing out for a very good reason as it was always expounded by her mother.

_If you ever go outside, Rapunzel, you will hurt people_. _Do you want people to die just because you cannot control your imagination? Always remember what happened to our first house._ _And then your reading tutor Mrs. Potts. Your power is uncontrollable. Do you want to hurt me too?_ Mother had said.

Rapunzel clutched her writing book to her chest. She felt tears are forming in her sinuses. The fear she felt was overwhelming. Fear of being left alone. But then also the fear of not being able to live like those people she saw walking on the streets. She had written nothing else but prayers for her mother's health, beauty and prosperity, while her heart was struggling to control the urge of writing down her desolation and sadness. But her sadness would only cause more suffering, Mother had warned her. _You're special, Rapunzel. Your words are powerful. Your words are magical. That kind of gift can be a curse if it is not protected, _Mother had said.

But how would she know how to take control of her gift if she was never to go outside? How would she find ways to not feel sad and miserable if she could not get pass those feelings? How on earth was she going to be happy if she never got to experience what the outside the world had to offer her? The questions ran though her clouded mind.

But the fear of the past stayed with her. The fire that burned down their house.

_ I wish that this house would just be razed to the ground so I can be free._

And Miss Potts who died of a heart attack as she was teaching her algebra when she was ten.

_I wish Miss Potts would be gone so I can go to a real school with other children._

But she was turning eighteen. And since Miss Potts' death, there had been no incidents. She had stopped writing her wishes. Instead, she had drawn and it seemed that drawing didn't have the same effect with her writing her wishes. Maybe, she had no more of this gift. Maybe she had outgrown it. Finally she could be free. She could ask Mother. She had a real dream now. She wanted to go to the University. She wanted to learn. She wanted to see what was inside a place that could launch hundreds of beautiful floating lanterns along the river Leith and yet being so gracious and careful about it.

But she shuddered thinking of what would Mother say. And then the crying fits and the depression she was going to face days and days after that. Mother would stop buying drawing and painting supplies for her. And she would stop bringing home puzzles and matchsticks and glue for her to build with. Mother would say that she was too upset to go to the shops to buy her supplies. And Rapunzel's day in the apartment's loft would be so black as she read her three books – _How to Survive Anything, Anywhere_, _The A to Z of First Aid and Family Health _and _The Artist's Manual_.

But surely being eighteen will count for something?

"Rapunzel! Let down your hair!"

Rapunzel gasped sharply. That was Mother's voice. But why did she say what she said? Rapunzel came down from her loft and went to the living space of the apartment.

"Hi Mother. You're back," she said carefully, not sure of her mother's mood after she came back from work at the theme park.

"Yes, dear. And see what I've got for you!" Mother said as she held out a big bag of something heavy to Rapunzel.

"An early birthday present! Surprise!" The woman said as she spun around the room like a slowly spinning top, her black wavy hair streaming out behind her. Rapunzel put her hand inside the bag and touched something very hairy. She mustered her courage and took out the thing. Then she saw the most horrifyingly strange object. It was like a long golden snake, a boa constrictor she had seen in the book _How To Survive Anything Anywhere_, only it was hair, braided into many, many smaller snakes, all seven metres of it.

"Uh-" Rapunzel felt like she had lost her breath, but Mother did not see that.

"I know that you've been asking and asking me about letting you go outside," Mother said.

"Uh-" Rapunzel looked at her mother in fear, breathlessly in agony of intense sadness.

"I think this is the time," said Mother and continued, "the girl playing the face character at the Tower has suddenly call it quits and we need a replacement, just for the coming weekend. And you know what? Mr. Grimmney promised me the biggest promotion of my career if I can find the replacement."

"Uh, Mother," Rapunzel tried to say something, as if she could guess where the conversation was heading.

"You're going to the Tower. Your only chance to see the world without hurting anybody, just for two days," Mother said cheerfully.

"But I don't want to go the Tower if this is the only chance I have to see the world, Mother," Rapunzel finally got her voice back.

"But where else would you go, Rapunzel? You who has nothing?" Mother asked pitifully.

"I want to go to the University,"

"What good would it bring going to the University? You don't belong in the University. You didn't go to school. You do not qualify. And it is not my fault, you know. It is because of that gift of yours. You will cause people getting hurt once you are there."

"Mother, I know I don't belong anywhere. I just, I just –"

"Oh, stop with the mumbling, Rapunzel. You know how annoyed I am with your mumbling."

"I just want to see Medieval Weekend, please!"

Rapunzel held out the pamphlet she collected from the wet window pane. Mother read the pamphlet with a look of disgust and then after a few seconds, her expression changed. Her face froze in abject horror.

"Please, Mother. Take me to Medieval Weekend," Rapunzel begged.

"I am not taking you to the University, Rapunzel. But I'm taking you to the Tower."

"Mother, please!"

"And you've got to cut that ugly brown hair of yours. Looks like dirty cow hide," Mother said as she pulled her arms into the bathroom.

"Why, Mother?"

"Because the seven metre long golden wig is very heavy and I don't need you real hair burdening you. As I have always said Rapunzel, it is for your own good."

"Mother, don't do this to me!" Rapunzel tried to fight the woman who had taken care of her her whole life. There was restrain and fear in her struggle. Mother stopped on their way to the bathroom and stared her down, all the while her hand pressing on Rapunzel's thin white arms.

"Take it or leave it, Rapunzel. Other than the Tower, YOU ARE NOT LEAVING THIS APARTMENT, EVER!"

It took only minutes for Mother to shave Rapunzel's abundant and straight brown hair to the roots. It was cold without her hair that she had kept until it reached the small of her back. Rapunzel was back at the window of her loft. She kept writing,

_My mother is the best person I've ever known. She is beautiful and her beauty is not reflective of her age. She is the luckiest woman in the world. Her job is doing her great. She is going to get promoted._

Tears fell onto the pages and Rapunzel could not go on anymore. She wished she could write how she felt. She would write 'The Wounded Chavalier' like William Shakepeare Burton had painted it. She would paint 'The Lady of Shallot' in words as if it was painted by John William Waterhouse in oil. But she dared not.

Instead she looked out into the street, below the apartment, where rows of buildings housed eateries and theatres and pubs and shops. Beyond them was the river Leith, which will be gleaming with floating lanterns on the night of her birthday.

But then she saw him again, the object of her amusement from her prison window. He was sitting on the curb of the air-conditioned eatery he worked in, his head in his hands as he bowed, resting or napping, his longish brown hair covering his forehead. He looked tired. He still had his working apron on, but it did not hide the beauty of his lean body and handsome height. After a few seconds, he got up and suddenly looked up, his eyes staring directly at hers. He put his hand to his forehead as if gesturing to her. She would smile back, she would! But she made herself disappear from his sight, afraid that he would notice how ugly she had become now.

But she would draw him again, directly from memory.


	3. Thief

**Chapter 2: Thief**

He wished he had a home to go to after all the toil he was doing for the day. The long hours was making him lose the feelings in his toes. The after-work crowd had thinned out a bit and he headed out to the curb so he could stretch and squat. That would do good to his aching muscles. He cupped his head in his hands and closed his eyes for a few seconds. He thought he was able to catch a few minutes of a power nap, but then he felt that feeling. The feeling of being watched. But not malevolently. He knew. He looked up and saw the face at the window. He knew the face had been watching him ever since he started working at the Chinese eatery, specialising in dishes from ducks. She was there again, her face as fair as snow. He put up his hand, gesturing to her, like saying, hi, how are you doing? But she disappeared the moment he did, when normally she had stayed there and smiled at him, absent-mindedly as if thinking that he wouldn't see the smile.

"Hey Flynnegan!" He heard Mr. Chang calling him.

"Yes, sir!"

"Take out the trash."

Flynn went back inside, still facing the window on the fourth floor of the apartment block as he walked.

_See ya later, girl in the tower._

Flynnegan went to the kitchen and saw four bags of trash waiting at the back. He took them all and opened the back door that brought him to the alleyway. When he got to the trash tank, he heaved the bags into it, little that he knew that his presence there was eagerly waited by a baseball bat.

Flynnegan felt sharp pain on his head before he lost his balance and fell on his knees on the tarmac . He hit the ground seconds later. Flynn wished that he had blacked out but he did not. Blacking out would be the better but he did not. Instead, it was like he was in between worlds. Like he was walking underwater and he has got rocks tied to his legs. He felt hands frisking his body and he grunted. Not again.

"What the –," he moaned.

"Hello Rider," a voice was heard as Flynn's sight regained its clarity. It was one of the Stabbingtons. It was Pollock, the one with the lazy eyes.

"Why?" Flynn moaned as he rubbed his sore cranium. He would take them one at a time if he was better prepared and them without the baseball bat or knives or guns hidden in their persons.

"We want you to do something for us."

"Ahah – but by knocking me out?" Flynn asked incredulously.

"That's because we want to take your student ID hostage."

The twin with the scar, Horace said and he held up Flynn's University of Corona student ID in front of his face.

"Flynnegan A. Rider. Enrolled 2008," Horace read the ID.

"Great. You can read," Flynn sighed.

"What's the A for?" Horace asked.

"Awesome. By the way, Pollock, nice eye patch. I'd rather be one eye blind than to have people confused whether I'm looking at them or somewhere else. That is such a moral dilemma," Flynn said, referring to the eye patch worn by Pollock to hide his lazy eyes.

"We have your ID, Flynn," Horace reminded Flynn.

"Agh, man. Not the student ID! You know that I paid big bucks to get that done MY WAY?"Flynn grimaced. He was actually stalling them with conversation so he could find a way to wiggle his way into their pockets and take his ID back.

"We know you'll die for this ID. We know you never use your _other _ID."

Horace said and threw Flynn's real ID on his face. Flynn took it and put it back in his pocket.

"Yeah, yeah," Flynn said while thinking how sorry he was that ever had a past.

"What is it that you want?" Flynn asked begrudgingly.

"Algernon Kingsley's original manuscript of the memoir _Life After Rachel_."

"What? The VC? Why?"

"Just say that our patron will pay big bucks for the original manuscript."

"That is so not cool, guys. The man had already lost his baby girl. And now you want me to steal the manuscript about his missing daughter? That is cold, man."

"What can I say, different people want different things."

"Do it or you'll lose your Flynnegan Rider ID."

"Why me? You guys are professionals right?"

"Us? In the university? We know we could use your brains, Rider. With all that reading you did back then."

"I don't get an education for this," Flynn complained.

"Deal or no deal?"

"Deal," Flynnegan Rider said, thinking of ways to get his ID back.

Next morning, he thought, he would have to see the VC. He had a class with him, which is Criminal Journalism 401, and he still had an assignment due. He would visit Professor Kingsley and talk to him about the dissertation. But then Flynn's eyes grew unfocused as he was thinking of another possibility. He was thinking of not screwing up. He had been given this amazing shot at life and he had tried very hard not to screw it up. Will he screw his life, imperfect and scarred as it is just because of that stupid ID? So what? No photocopying, no book loans, no computer lab until he got another one fixed, that is after another pay check from the Chinese duck eatery. He had sworn that he was never going to screw his own life _again_ and this window towards escalation is open wide just because of his mistaken juvenile identity and his deep-seated problem with self-esteem.

Perhaps his eyes told Pollock and Horace too much. There was a moment where they could see in Flynn's eyes that he had become uncaring about the threat. That Flynn had no longer care for his Flynnegan Rider student ID anymore. Pollock and Horace knew that being Flynn Rider had been very important to him but they wouldn't know that if he had changed since he had gotten educated in the tertiary level. They also knew that promises meant nothing to Flynn Rider.

"If you ever think of ditching us again, Flynn, remember this."

Horace took out his phone and showed a photo he had snapped using it to Flynn. One glance at the digital capture changed Flynn's face.

"No!" Flynn yelled.

"Yes," Horace grinned malevolently.

"You leave her alone, I'll get you the damn manuscript."


	4. The Tower

**Thanks for the review, generous readers.**

**FaithRivens: I will try my best to be as logical and real as the story could in our world, with some manipulation thrown in.**

**Romance and Musical & PampleMousse07: Thanks for your tireless readership. A moral Eugene makes us love him even more when we already love the flawed Eugene.**

**Kyoru_KiTTy_ArTist & AIOFanNRCM: I'm going to be a little at this, but stay with me!**

**Eventhough some stories need to be told with or without reviews – I LOVE REVIEWS!**

**Chapter 4: The Tower**

"Alright, this is your big day out, Rapunzel. Make sure you've got everything you need with you," Mother said as she stood at her bedroom door. Sorely disappointed yet hopeful, Rapunzel pushed into Mother's old bag made from tie-dye fabric the things she wanted to bring along to her first day out. She had decided to bring a bottle of drinking water, a face towel and a bar of dark chocolate.

"Do I have to bring my journal too?"

Rapunzel was thinking if she could finally not be with her journal. She thought Mother wouldn't need her to write about good things happening to Mother in the Tower. Mother would be out working anyway. She had written enough good things happening to Mother to last her the whole working week.

"Of course, you must! You must write that Mr. Grimmney is finally me giving me that promotion to work in Human Resources because I managed to get a replacement for the face character in such a short notice. Write it to the tee, Rapunzel."

Rapunzel took the leather-bound journal and her fountain pen used that Mother had specifically given her for writing and kept them in the breast pocket under her black suede jacket.

"Remember Rapunzel. Whatever happens, think of good things. Write good things."

"Yes, Mother."

"It's going to get cold out there. "

Mother took a thick woollen black scarf and wrapped it around her head like it was a hood and wound the remaining length of the scarf around her neck.

"Now, you look like a druid," Mother exclaimed happily.

"A very sad one," Mother continued and laughed.

The two walked to the bottom floor of the apartment and Rapunzel stood in front of the door as she waited Mother to open it. There were two doors. One separated the outside world and the apartment building. And an inner door that separated the air from the outside with the air in the apartment. Mother never opened one door without first closing the other. Mother locked the inner door before she opened the outer door. And when she did, the wind hit Rapunzel's face and its coldness brought tears to her eyes. She almost lost her balance just because she was assailed by so much visceral stimulations all at once. She saw people's face from up front, not from the top of their heads. She saw them wincing in the wind, some cursing, clutching their collars, hanging on to their hats and scarves. Seeing their faces made her think of words she could use in her sentences. She saw words forming in their mouths as they cursed and complained.

"Come on, get in the van," Mother said and pulled her hand. She pushed Rapunzel closer to her old Volkswagen van parked at the curb. Rapunzel entered it and sat on the passenger's seat, marvelling at the mouldy smell of the van. Words formed in her head, OLD. REEKING. AROMA. Mother started the engine and drove. She saw the woman's head jut forward to the front as she was ascertaining the angle of the vehicle parked in front of her. _Like a witch sailing through the air_. Rapunzel said quietly.

The van went through the busy part of town and went to the even busier part of it, the Grimmney Theme Park. As they moved closer to the park, Rapunzel prayed that she could see the University up close. She hoped that they will pass the University somehow before they pass the theme park. She had a feeling that the University looks like one of the castles she saw in the Pre-Raphaelite paintings in _The Artist's Manual, _in the painting _Parzival _by Martin Wiegand – multi-tiered and complex, ancient but beautiful. But she wouldn't know until she sees it with her own eyes. Sometimes she felt that her imagination ran ahead of her perception and that caused Mother so much misery.

"Are we not passing the University, Mother?" She had to ask. Mother gave a snort.

"No. The park is on the way before the University. You won't get a chance to see it. By the way, we are already here!" Mother said and parked the van in the parking lot assigned for the theme park's workers.

"Come! Let's get you into that tower," Mother said excitedly.

Rapunzel saw children licking cotton candy. She saw mothers shouting after their running boys. She heard the rickety-rick-rick sound of the metal skeleton thing spinning as people on it screamed. And she saw horses, cold and dead, jumping in neat sequence as they spin in a circle of music she had never heard before.

Rapunzel saw the Tower even before she reached it. It was built in white bricks and the top of the tower was made of from wood and red stones. It looked rather nice. They even had put flowers on the verandah of the window. There were creepers, she assumed natural ones, climbing the stone base. She saw children waiting at the base of the tower, their faces looking up as if waiting for something to happen. But there was a sign erected right in front of them.

_The Tower and its Face Character are currently non-operational. Sorry for the inconvenience._

"How long am I going to stay here?" Rapunzel asked Mother.

"It's going to close at 12.00 midnight. Then, I'm going to pick you up. And we will go home."

"What am I going to do here?"

"Let's go up and I'll tell you what to do."

Mother used a plastic card to open the door at the base of the tower. She flipped a switch once they entered a dark room. The light showed a winding staircase up to the upper part of the tower. Rapunzel followed her mother. At last, they reached a landing that was made up of a comfortable living space. It was as if a person was meant to live there. The floor was made of laminated hardwood and lushly carpeted. The decor was homely. There were comfortable chairs for two people and a table where plastic flowers and fruits were put. The walls were decorated with murals of stars and trees.

"There is a washroom and a single bed in a small room at the back if you want to take a nap, but I suggest you don't."

As strange as a first day could go, Rapunzel smiled with a twinkle in her sad eyes.

_Oh, Mother, I'm not going to take a nap on my first day out!_

"There is some instant food in the small fridge in the back room too. You can use the microwave as well," Mother showed Rapunzel the neat small back room.

"Next, you get dressed up. I know you love your black dresses very much,"

_ Oh Mother, you gave me the black dresses!_

"But you have to wear this pink one just for this evening."

_ Pink! What a nice change for once._

"And wear this wig too."

Rapunzel stared at the golden boa constrictor-like thing. She had seen in it one of her books. In the chapter _Surviving the Tropics_ from _How To Survive Anything Anywhere_.

Lovingly, Mother placed the wig on Rapunzel's completely shorn head and kissed her on her head.

"My magic flower. You look beautiful already."

Rapunzel blushed at those words. Mother never told her she was beautiful and she never felt beautiful but if the wig is what it takes for Mother to say that, she'll take it.

"This is the intercom," Mother pointed out to a box-like device fastened to the frame of the window.

"When you hear somebody said, 'Rapunzel, let down your hair!" you show your face out the window and you loop your hair on this hook," Mother said as she pointed to a large hook jutting out from under an awning on the window and then throw down your hair. Don't worry; they won't pull it because there is a fence keeping them away from the base of the tower."

"They know my name? They will refer to me personally as Rapunzel?

"Oh no, this tower is Rapunzel's Tower."

"You named me after a tower?"

"Whatever Rapunzel. Now, take out your journal and write me getting my promotion successfully. When I get the extra money I will buy you all the Pre-Raphaelite painting prints that you want. A belated birthday gift."

"The prints!" Rapunzel exclaimed. She loved them. She wanted to have them all.

"Shift starts at 4 p.m., so you got half an hour to start. I'm going to see Mr Grimmney now. So, wish Mother good luck," Mother held out her arms and Rapunzel gave her a hug.

"I love you, Rapunzel."

"I love you more, Mother."

"I love you most."

Mother left and Rapunzel heard the door click. She felt like running out of the Tower at the instant and going to the first candy floss seller she saw, but she realised that Mother gave her no money to buy things and her shift was going to start soon.

Rapunzel studied the room. There were a few books on the shelf but as she found out they were not written in English, and made of entirely words she could not understand.

Except for one book that was large and thin but with a lavishly designed cover and a golden spine. It was a book for children entitled 'Rapunzel'. Intrigued, she opened the book and marvelled at the pictures in it. The pictures reminded her of Sir John Everett Milais' painting 'Auttumn Leaves', so rich and detailed and the girl in the picture looked like the girl in Thomas Cooper Gotch's painting 'The Child Enthroned.' This being her fourth book and of a different direction from her only and previous three made Rapunzel read with genuine enthrallment. To her delight, it was a story about a girl named Rapunzel.

A lonely couple that wanted a child lived next to a walled garden which belonged to an enchantress. The wife, as a result of her long-awaited pregnancy, noticed a rapunzel plant in the garden and longed for it to the point of death. The husband went out and broke into the garden to gather some for her. As he was scaling the wall to return home, the enchantress, caught him and accused him of theft. She was going to report him to the Kingdom's law keepers. The man begged for mercy, and the old woman agreed to be lenient, on condition that the then-unborn child be surrendered to her at birth. Desperate to not be put on trial for stealing, the man agreed.

When the baby girl was born, the enchantress took her and raised the child as her own, naming her Rapunzel. Not wanting anyone to know that she had taken someone else's daughter, he enchantress shut her away into a tower in the middle of the woods, with neither stairs nor door, and only one room and one window. When the witch went to visit Rapunzel, she stood beneath the tower and called out:

_Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair, so that I may climb the golden stair_.

Upon hearing these words, Rapunzel would wrap her long, fair hair around a hook that sat beside the window and drop it down to the enchantress, who would then climb up the hair to Rapunzel's tower room.

One day, a prince rode through the forest and heard Rapunzel singing from the tower. Entranced by her beautiful and enchanting voice, he went to look for the girl and found the tower, but was unable to enter. He then returned often, listening to her beautiful singing. One day, the prince chanced upon one of the enchantress' visits, thus learning how to enter the tower. When the enchantress was gone, he bade Rapunzel to let her hair down. When she did this, he climbed up, made her acquaintance, and finally asked her to marry him. Rapunzel agreed.

Together they planned a means of escape, wherein he would come each night thus avoiding the enchantress who visited her by day. But one night, the enchantress came across the prince who was visiting her captive daughter. In anger, the enchantress cut short Rapunzel's braided hair and cast her out into the wilderness to fend for herself. When the prince called that night, the enchantress let the severed braids down to haul him up. To his horror, he found himself staring at the witch instead of Rapunzel, who was nowhere to be found. When she told him in anger that he would never see Rapunzel again, he leapt from the tower in despair and was blinded by the thorns below.

For months he wandered through the wastelands of the country. One day, while Rapunzel sang as she fetched water, the prince heard Rapunzel's voice again, and they were reunited. They fell into each others' arms, and her tears immediately restored his sight. The prince leads her to his kingdom, where they lived happily ever after.

THE END.

So, that is why the people were calling anyone who is in the Tower 'Rapunzel'. Mother had named her after the old story! It was very nice of Mother to do so but she never told her the story.

Questions began to pop in Rapunzel's mind. The story has a prince who came to rescue the girl from her tower. Why didn't assign the Tower a prince? That will make such a nice addition, Rapunzel thought, as a story began forming in her mind.

_Oh. Maybe if I write it, it will come true. But I'm also going to write about Mother. And I have to get myself made up. Oh, so many things to do, so little time!_

With so many things to do, Rapunzel had to make a decision. She decided to write about Mother first and her promotion and then she would dress up.

The Prince would have to wait.


	5. The Heist

**A/N: I'm listening to Joan Osbourne's **_**One of Us**_** and got all video clippy about this chapter. This is melancholy and down-trodden Flynn's chapter.**

**Chapter 4 : The Heist**

The past was like a prison from which no inmate could escape. And this afternoon Flynn was one unlucky prisoner. The Stabbingtons had decided to pick him up after the lunch hour shift at the Chinese eatery and deposited him in front of the Burns' Building at the University. So he could reach Professor Kingsley on time, they said.

The threesome had wildly tested themselves in various adventures of thievery during high school. The Stabbingtons got the guts and the looks, and Flynn got the technical know-hows and the good looks. They did it for years until something clicked in Flynn. A logical common sense fell into his head. Flynn suddenly realised that he could get what he wanted by honestly working for it. And such endeavour was less risky, more constant in the terms of revenue and at the end of the day, he felt a lot better; his heart rate calmer and his pulsing blood healthier.

But the Stabbingtons never got through that phase. Where Flynn had moved on, they remained. But during their intense shared experience, the Stabbingtons had thought that Flynn was forever part of their team even though the latter had moved on to other endeavours. Worse yet, they knew parts of his life that they will manipulate according to whims.

Again, Flynn was sorry that he ever had a past.

"I don't guarantee anything. This is just a recce," Flynn said as he looked at the Burns' building from the winded down window of the Stabbingtons' pimped up car.

"Take your time, Rider," Pollock replied.

"You wait around, in case I got it the first time I saw it. And if that is the case, I get my student ID and then you leave her alone."

"Do it first, we'll talk later."

"If this continues, I'll go straight to the police."

"The police? You must be joking. You're terrified of the police. You have too much to lose. Your education, your frikkin' bright future. We, by the way, are not as disillusioned as you."

"I'm serious. This is for the stuff that I owe you when we were seventeen. The lies, the things I took from you and this will be the end of it. Deal?"

Flynn offered his hand.

Pollock took it in his giant paw.

"Deal."

"You know what I'll do the next time you guys pull another thing like this on me," Flynn warned. Pollock smirked.

Flynn got out of the car. Once the Stabbingtons left, he took off the moss-green hoodie he was wearing and stuffed it into his backpack, revealing his impeccable style suited to the high brow society of the academia. Flynn spotted a fitted teal vest over white shirt. He folded the sleeve to the half of his lower arm to the effect of unkempt plus nerdy. He had blue jeans on and a pair of high cut boots. He walked along the corridor on the seventh floor of the Burns' building which housed the VC's office. As he passed, Fynn received appreciative glances from the females of the academia, teachers and fellow students alike. But he was in no mood to act gracious. He was preoccupied in his own thoughts. Flynn shuddered to think that he was just about to risk everything with he was about to do.

But he was painfully placed.

Miss Walker had fished him out of many sticky situations even when she knew that he was at most times guilty of whatever he was charged for. He never asked Miss Chapman why she did it all those difficult years but he had kept an eye on her after he was emancipated from the welfare system. He got into college at the same time Miss Walker retired from her work in the shelter. He dropped by her flat to help haul up the groceries and haul down the trash. Sometimes he did odd repairs. Once a week, he thought, that wouldn't hurt his 'bustling' social life. But it seemed once a week was enough for the Stabbingtons to ascertain his attachment to the elderly woman. The thing that they showed him after they clubbed him on the head was a photo of him carrying groceries into the block of Miss Walker's residence with the woman walking next to him. They both had the back of their heads to the camera, so the Stabbingtons could have been snapping at them from their car as they were driving along the street, spying on him.

Flynn was a few steps away from the door of the Vice Chancellor's office when the door suddenly opened and out came Professor Kingsley.

"Good afternoon, Professor Kingsley, I - " Flynn said reflexively, seeing the target of his assignment.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Rider, I – I'm going to get a very important item from the front desk, so get in and have a seat," Professor Kingsley said in a hurry as he went off in the other direction. Flynn shrugged and entered the room. Professor Kingsley was a very tall man. Flynn knew he was tall but the VC was a head taller than him and large too. When one said that Kingsley is a Vice Chancellor, one knew that by seeing at him as well. He had a thick beard, making his face appear stronger. Professor Kingsley is always dressed in a blazer and a tie, formal-looking all the time.

Flynn entered the man's office. It was a room lined with books, what else. The most outstanding feature of the room was a series of portraits hanging on the only wall not filled with books. There were eighteen portraits all together, arranged in succession, from a baby's face until it became the face of a teenage girl of about seventeen. The girl had a pair of animated emerald green eyes and shoulder length brown hair. There were faint freckles on her nose. She was mesmerising to look at. There was something about those livid eyes and her small nose and pinkish small pursed lips and the freckles on the glowing fair face. And of course, that luscious brown hair. Flynn knew that he always got a thing for brunettes. If she was here today, she would have been very beautiful.

Professor Kingsley must be a very strong man at heart. He could come face to face with tragedy and stare right at it, every day of his life, Flynn thought.

Flynn shook his head and focused on the task at hand. He began studying the table. And he saw it as he guessed it. Professor Kingsley liked to have the very thing that causes him pain to be within sight. The manuscript of _Life After Rachel_ was right on his giant table, under a photo frame of a very old picture of him, his wife and baby girl.

Flynn steeled his resolve. He would make a copy of this damn manuscript and post the copy to Professor Kingsley, he swore. It felt like stealing the man's baby himself. It was that bad.

But he had to do this. The Stabbingtons got him good this time.

One swipe and the manuscript was already in his hand. The door was still open. Flynn poked his head out. No one was in the corridor; Professor Kingsley had not come back. Flynn stuffed the manuscript into his backpack and made an inconspicuous exit and headed for the stairs. He was running down the stairs now. He pulled his hoodie over his body. Once he was outside the Burns' building, he wore the headpiece over his head.

He went back to the stone yard in front of the Burns' building and scanned the panorama for the Stabbingtons but saw nothing. He did not wait and jogged until he reached one of the gates of the University. He was not going to sit around in the University with the loot, he said. He headed back to the 's eatery in case that they were waiting there, as they had waited for him yesterday. After he was out of the University ground he felt much better. He walked at normal pace.

But then, it happened. A police patrol car passed right in front of his eyes, and he saw Horace's scarred face looking right at him from the car's window. At that moment, the siren went off. Flynn stopped walking, stepped back as if in slow motion and retreated into the row of buildings on the side street. Was he terrified! He broke into a sprint. He was so out of his element after four years of being clean. He was now on a new street and the patrol car had not reached it. But the siren was loud.

Flynn made a mad dash across the street and something horrifyingly solid rammed into him. He rolled over it and dropped spectacularly on the tarmac, his breath knocked out of his lungs. It was a car. Flynn realized suddenly that he had ran into a car, or the car had ran into him at the speed of about fifty miles per hour and now he was on the ground. Traffic had stopped and some people were walking towards him.

This cannot be happening, he cursed in disbelief.

He breathed in and felt that he could still stand. He bent over to make sure blood is getting into his brain. The driver, a woman who had a small boy strapped to the seat had come out of the car and was touching his arm.

"Are you alright? Oh, I'm sorry, I did not see you!" She exclaimed regretfully.

"I'm fine. I'm OK," Flynn found himself saying.

"Are you sure? Don't you want to go to the hospital? Have a quick screen? I was going pretty fast," she said, genuinely imploring him, as if she had broken him or something.

"Thanks, I'm fine."

The siren was getting louder. NEED. TO. GET. OUT. OF. HERE, Flynn's thieving part of the brain signalled. He was scared to death. He did not want it to end this way. Not with the police. This is not beyond repair yet, he chanted in his head.

"Are you sure? " The woman asked.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," Flynn said and retreated from the scene. He was running again. Man, he is OK, thank goodness, he rejoiced in disbelief. But the siren was getting louder, still following.

Man, the Stabbingtons had sold him out. He did not understand it. Why did they do it? But knowing the Stabbingtons it could be anything. They were not very smart. The best case scenario would be them caught by the police for littering. The worst case scenario would be, THIS. The Stabbingtons were caught and now they are singing their hearts out to the police. He needed to go somewhere with a lot of people. His prayer was answered when he saw the entrance of the Grimmney Theme Park. Of course, Flynn began to sing in his head.

The Friday evening crowd was getting strong, as the autumn came and before the park closed during winter. Flynn bumped into a park worker in the crowd.

"Sorry,' he apologized. The man nodded as they part ways. Flynn already had the all access pass card of the park in his hand. He hadn't lose all his skills after all.

He saw the Tower with a '_The Tower and its Face Character are currently non-operational. Sorry for the inconvenience' _sign.

Perfect, he said. He slotted in the card and the door at the base opened. He entered cautiously. He did not turn on the lights. He climbed the stairs. He was sure since the Tower is not operational, no one would be inside.

Alone at last, he sighed.

**Up Next – The darker meet cute. So dark you will think it is the story's ending.**


	6. Black Out

**Hi Readers, thank you for reviewing. I can't resist posting on the day Zachary & Mandy sang at the Oscars.**

**Romance and Musical: Yeah, you got it right. **

**PampleMousse07: There are many other versions of the Rapunzel fairy tale. But I've taken the one version I love most. The others are quite adult/ mature.**

**AIOFanNCRM: The problem with the ending is that we KNOW it already! I'm cracking my head on how to put it down in a modern spin. **

**An Unknown Foreign Beauty: Hey, keep posting updates. Because readers love updates. They don't want to wait too long.**

**Chapter 5: Black Out**

Time made no sense. It was twenty minutes to 4 p.m. Accustomed only to solitary, where she never had anyone to share private space with; Rapunzel took off her black jacket and dark purple blouse in the middle of the room while standing in front of the wardrobe. She was only in her undergarment, her white skin looking pale and almost silvery. Her baggy black jeans were just hanging by the soft curves on her waist. She already had the pink dress belonging to the theme park in her hands when she heard the doorknob rattled. She spun around, half-expecting Mother's Medusa-like head to poke into the room. Instead she saw a man stumbling towards her.

Reflexively, her fist flew and landed on the man's face. Mother had told her tales of misery caused by men who came to close proximity to women and one of the tales was the cause of her very own existence. And a man who trespassed her private space, while she was half naked and getting dressed deserved nothing less than a kiss with a fist. Rapunzel expected the man to stagger for a few seconds before she could think of what the next course of action would be.

But she did not expect the man to keel over to the floor and lay there face down. Rapunzel knew her own strength. She was small built. Even though she did regular exercise on the treadmill machine Mother bought, she was no Olympian body builder or an Amazon lady wrestler. Her fist couldn't have caused the man a decent bruise and yet he was on the floor. She dropped the pink dress and stepped gingerly towards the man. She poked his face and found that he was breathing and conscious but he was in pain. He was holding a bag when he stumbled into the Tower and the bag was thrown on the floor when he fell. Suddenly fear took over her. What had she done? She had hurt a person. The first person who came close to her after Mother, after Miss Potts her late reading tutor, that is.

She pushed the man on his back. He was breathing laboriously and then he coughed. When he did, bloodspurted from his mouth.

Then she knew, from her reading of _The A to Z of First Aid and Family Health,_ the man had sustained injuries before he came into the Tower.

"Have you been in an accident?" She asked the man who was struggling between pain and falling into darkness.

"I hit a car –," he groaned and his hand clutched his otherwise fine looking torso. She found no blood or wounds. She guessed the impact had broken something in him. He was experiencing a massive internal bleeding.

"I'll get help."

Rapunzel knew every step of first aid like they were imprinted in her brains. But internal bleeding is not something first aid can fix. The note always ended with 'get proper medical assistance'.

"No, no - " he gasped as if trying to stop her.

"I've got to get the manuscript-"he said with his almost closed eyes gesturing to his brown backpack.

"You have to get to the hospital."

"The manuscript – Miss Walker-"his sentence ended there and then his whole body went limp.

"No!" Rapunzel whispered. And when his face became soft after no longer struggling with pain, she realized who he was.

"It's you!" She whispered. He was the young man who worked in the eatery across the street from Mother's apartment. The one she was so fascinated by because of her limited and imprisoned point of view.

Rapunzel ran to the intercom and shouted into it but the intercom was dead. Mother did not teach her how to use it to communicate with the outside world. She wanted to run downstairs but her shift was going to start soon. A mistake on her part will cost Mother her promotion. She did not want Mother to get angry.

Then, it crossed her mind like a shooting star. Still in the state of undress, she rummaged through her bag and took out her journal and fountain pen.

Please make this work, please make this work, she repeated under her breath. It had only work on Mother. She had to believe that she could do this now to save him. Not just for Mother.

_ Heal what has been hurt_

_ Change the Fate's design _

_ Save what has been lost_

_ Bring back what once was fine _

_ What once was fine._

The words formed in her mind and she wrote them down. She had never written verses before and she felt like a witch writing her incantations. She watched the man became still. Few seconds passed.

Just as suddenly as he had appeared into her life, he breathed deeply and opened his brown acrylic paint coloured eyes.

It worked! She healed him from his injuries! Just by writing in the journal and willing the words to come true. And then, she was assailed by the terrifying thoughts that Mother had put into her mind all these years.

You caused that fire.

You killed Miss Potts.

Is it a gift or a curse?

"Are you an angel?" The young man asked with his eyes half-closed.

Only when he said that Rapunzel realised that she was only in her undergarment and she had her hairless head in all its glory to be seen by him. She must have looked like a bizarre creature from some strange painting in his clouded eyes. Rapunzel's hands flew to her chest in an attempt to cover her half naked body. She shot to the wardrobe and slipped into the pink gown hurriedly and took off her jeans. Then she said to him who was still lying flat on the floor, dazed and confused.

"Come on. Let's get you on the bed."

"This must be heaven – it hurt so bad I must be dead," he muttered.

She put her arms around him and heaved to bring him to his feet. They entered the small back room and the man stumbled onto the bed. He fell into it and sank into a deep sleep.

Rapunzel went out to the Tower's living space and fetch the man's backpack. She opened it and took out the thing he was mentioning so vehemently before he lost consciousness. It was a bound thick bundle of paper with the words 'Life After Rachel' printed on the front. The body of work was written by Algernon Kingsley. Only having read very limited number of printed publications, Rapunzel never forgot words. Algernon Kingsley was the name she read on the flyer promoting Medieval Weekend in the University. And he was the person responsible for the launch of the lanterns into the River Leith every year. Algernon Kingsley, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Corona championing the issue of unsolved cases of missing children. And the man lying asleep in the back room had come so close to the Vice Chancellor, that it could only be that he was from the University too.

Rapunzel flipped open the manuscript and found these words written on the first page within.

"For our beloved and painfully missed daughter, Rachel. If you ever felt that you are ours, please find a way to come back to us – Mum and Dad."

And there were pictures of the girl again, in eighteen frames. From since she was a baby until she was seventeen. The faces of the beautiful lost princess of the one of the most influential and powerful man in the city. What irony, to have such promise in life but not able to live it, Rapunzel thought. Where could she be? Is she dead or alive? How is it to live with that kind of hoping for everyday of their lives?

The thought made Rapunzel felt she wanted to be a part of the celebration even more. Medieval weekend, the floating lanterns, her eighteen birthday! The desire burned in her like a large flame, she could barely contain herself.

Since the man so valued the thick bound pieces of paper, she would hold it hostage until he help her reach the University in time for Medieval Weekend, the launch of the lanterns and bring her back to the Grimmney Theme Park.

But she still was preoccupied with the worry of how to make Mother not notice her missing for two days. A part of her did not care if Mother found her missing from the Tower. She knew that by the time she found out it would already be too late. Mother would be angry but she would forgive her, as long as she needed her. And Mother needed her. Rapunzel used to be baffled by how Mother 's faith in her cursed gift of writing could be so paralyzing but now she understood. She had that gift and she needed to take control of it so it will remain a gift. She did and she just saved a life.

Rapunzel put the manuscript and the man's backpack in one of the many utility boxes under the stairs. She headed back upstairs when she heard the intercom cackled with her mother's broken voice.

"Rapunzel. Are you done dressing up? I'm coming up!" Mother sounded angry.

"What?" Rapunzel gasped. She thought that Mother was still at work. She could not have her now in the Tower as she was harbouring a man, a creature that Mother abhorred so much.

Rapunzel wrote hurriedly in her book.

The secret remains for me to keep

Let the secret remain as it sleeps.

"Rapunzel, there is something wrong with the things you wrote about me," Mother seethed angrily as she entered. It came to Rapunzel's realisation that she had not written anything about Mother's promotion in the midst of the current event. To save the man's life, she had forgotten to write about Mother!

Oh, what is she going to do now?


	7. Narrow Escape

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews, you wonderful people. This task is getting difficult. It's like a giant puzzle. **

**PampleMousse07: A good suggestion to change things up. Thanks.**

**Chapter 6: Narrow Escape**

All the while he was struggling. Even if it was pointless, he knew he had to wake up. In his dark sub-conscious, he was already running, carrying that crazy manuscript, throwing it to the Stabbingtons' faces, getting back his student ID, making sure that Miss Walker was fine and then he went on with his life.

Instead, on another side of his mind, he was moving underwater, slowly and heavily. And when he finally got to the surface, he heard an angry voice. Rubbing his eyes, Flynn got up on his elbows. He felt his chest and gut. They were fine. It was as if he had woken up from a bad dream and a terribly long illness. As he sat on the small bed, trying to make sense of place and time, he heard voices from outside the small room.

"Why did you not write it down?" It was a voice of a woman yelling.

"I'm sorry," another voice responded in exasperation.

"This is the only chance I've got. And you've ruined it. I can't be Tower Hand forever!" The woman's voice went very high.

"Maybe you just have to work harder for it instead of relying on what I wrote for you, Mother," a girl's voice answered.

The girl! Flynn thought suddenly, realising that he was there because of her, other than his own misadventure with the Stabbingtons. The angel, the fair girl with the gleaming white head, shoulders and skin.

"Come on! Get this wig on you quick!"

"Let me go! You're hurting me!"

What is going on? Flynn thought. Is the girl being hurt right now? He had to do something. He knew she had tried to help him while he was hurting. And now he felt a lot better. Something clicked in Flynn's mind that made him burst out of the small room.

"Hey!" He yelled.

A woman whom he thought looked very familiar to him was holding the girl's face as her other hand was trying to push a ridiculously long golden wig on the girl's head. The woman turned to him with a look in her eyes that could have stabbed him if it was given a physical form.

"What!" The woman seethed malevolently like a serpent.

"Let her go!" Flynn boomed at her.

The woman dashed to a nearby drawer and suddenly there was a craft knife in her hand. Some paper decorations fell to the floor from the drawer. The woman dashed towards him.

"Lady! You don't want to do that!" Flynn warned her, almost laughing. He thought she was not going to do it. How can a lady/mother/auntie hurt a strapping young man like him? He was convinced that every one of the female kind would fall in love with him on first sight.

"Mother!" The bald-headed girl screamed.

But the woman moved like a hunter and swung the craft knife at him. It cut through his hoodie and vest and shirt but barely missed the flesh on his chest. All alerts sounding in his system, he made a desperate dash out of the room and down the stairs. He was scared and unprepared. It was just animal-like reflex. He stumbled like a mad man out of the Tower. He ran all the way with only the clothes on his back, out of the Tower and straight out of the theme park's gate.

It was only when he arrived at the gate when he realized that he had left without his backpack containing the manuscript _Life After Rachel. _He braked and stood by the gate, body bent and chest heaving. He hid behind an abandoned hotdog hawker stall and watched if there was some kind of movement the woman made to pursue him.

He was right. Ten minutes later, he saw a very familiar Volkswagen van, the same one he always saw parked at the curb across the street to the Chinese eatery. He couldn't miss it. It was a van straight out of the photos of the seventies. Like she was prepared to camp out somewhere and get high. The woman who was wielding the craft knife was driving it with the distraught looking girl next to her. He knew their faces now and he realised why they looked so familiar. He had seen the woman's face before. Hers used to be a passing visage in his life, now she had become a menacing presence. And he knew about the girl too. He now knew where they live and he had a terrifying suspicion that he was somehow connected to the girl. And the coincidence was staggering.

As he let the vehicle pass freely, a new horror formed in his mind.

Where is his backpack? Where is _Life After Rachel_?

The girl. Her insane 'mother'. _Mother? What kind of Mother is that?_ Flynn began to have too many thoughts in his head.

He has to get _Life After Rachel_ back. There was no other way. There was too much to lose.

He had to find her.

**Up Next: Gothel got in touch with her Bathory bloodline.**


	8. Descent Into Madness

**Chapter 7: Descent into Madness**

It was probably the Bathory blood in her.

Gothel did not want to admit it at first. But with the combination of the withdrawal from Seroquel and the shot of whiskey she took from the small flask from her handbag just after Mr. Grimmney told her he still hadn't thought about the promotion, the effects were devastating but just as liberating. Gothel's anger boiled in her like the combination of highly volatile chemicals. And what she did to the trespassing boy in the Tower freed the caged animal inside her. She felt as if she was being reborn. She was not going to be afraid anymore. She knew her supply of mood stabilizer and anxiety treatment had finished, but she had no plans to replenish them.

_To hell with the drugs_, she thought. _If this is what withdrawal feels like, so be it. _

"Who is that boy?" Gothel yelled at Rapunzel, the girl who thought she was her daughter, with the craft knife still in her hand. Realizing that there was no trace of blood on the thin knife, Gothel felt angrier now that she had failed to cut into the boy's skin.

"I don't know!" The girl cried.

At present, her alien-like ugliness made Gothel loathe. And that loathing, not surprisingly, was causing her drug-like happiness. No one was going to recognize Rapunzel as Rachel Kingsley now, no matter how many of that computer-generated age progression posters they print out and pass around. Rachel Kingsley on the poster was a happy, pinkish skinned girl with luscious dark brown hair and sparkling emerald-like eyes. How on Earth did they think the baby they had lost could turn out to be that healthy and happy-looking? Idiots. Gothel sneered in her darkening heart. After years and years of put downs, secret captivity and installation of self-loathing upon the girl, Gothel was proud of her final handiwork – a girl whom she could manipulate with her words, cut her beautiful hair and shaved her head bald and then scared her to death about HER effects on the world outside. Rachel Kingsley on the posters was a fantasy. She had become Rapunzel Bathory, an insanely strange-looking girl nobody would love; nobody would take any notice at. And if people knew what Rapunzel had done to their old house and the dead reading tutor, they would even fear and shun her too. And the goodness of Rapunzel's ability was only known to Gothel alone. Somehow, the words written by Rapunzel in that enchanted book and fountain pen that were meant for Gothel alone had come true. Gothel won a lottery once and was able to get a new apartment and furnished it according to her taste; antique furniture, a painting studio for Rapunzel, large mirrors with curly frames.

In the light of the recent development, Gothel was even thinking of going to see the voodoo doctor Facilier again and consult him about the book, the pen and the progress made by the girl. But the trip to Facilier would take her three days. If the situation arose, she will make that trip.

How she loved the girl. She loved her so much that she would never, ever let her go. And Rapunzel had succumbed to dependence on her that she did not talk about the outside world anymore. She thought the girl was satisfied with the sight from her window and the painting gallery where she painted grey minarets-infested skyline, sights of people walking desolately from aerial view, and the annual River Leith event at night with the lights in it.

But then Rapunzel showed her the University's Medieval Weekend flyer with the portrait of Rachel Kingsley on it. And Gothel was jolted by the past which had came back to haunt her.

Gothel picked the thrown book from off the floor. She read the latest entry and the sight made her feel flame burning in her ears.

"You're writing verses! A healing incantation! So, you are a WITCH now? Hoo hoo, my little witch!" Gothel made strange teasing noises. The girl cringed, and Gothel wouldn't know whether the girl was afraid or annoyed.

"He was badly hurt. I just did it. I wasn't thinking."

"He didn't seem hurt when he shot off, running away like a scalded cat!"

Despite her teasing and belittling, Gothel realized that Rapunzel had shown a new aspect of her ability. She was reminded of the girl's true mother. The woman had said, words are magical, words are powerful. When Gothel snatched the baby in her pram during a sales day in the University bookshop, it was just because of the spite in her heart. But when Gothel knew what the girl's true mother had said happened to her child, Gothel had risen to the occasion of raising the little girl like a martyr. She knew it when a dead rose plant in the kitchen (Rapunzel's idea) bloomed again when Rapunzel wrote these simple words in her drawing book. _My rose has bloom again_. It wasn't even grammatically correct. Rapunzel was six.

And Gothel had stayed close to the University just to watch the publishing royalty couple suffer their loss. She wondered about how they had fought over the question of who had caused the baby girl to have gone missing. She wondered how they had argued over who had let their baby out of sight first. She wondered how they could sleep at night with guilt and blame infesting like cancer in their hearts. Were they still the perfect, happy couple after that? She sneered. They, who had tossed aside her one and only magnum opus without a care, her only shot at fame and fortune, the manuscript of _Darker Ever After_.

Her twisted plan had worked well. She had lived meagrely and modestly, just to maintain her invisibility so she could witness sadness eating away at the University town's most famous and respected couple. She could have asked Rapunzel to write her untold riches and fame and popularity, but she was content just watching people crumble. That alone brought her limitless joy. Anything else was just a bonus. And everything was just as she expected to happen. Everything was according to plan.

But she never expected the boy to cross paths with Rapunzel. And he now was the only other person besides her who had discovered her ability. Gothel realised that she needed to take a definitive action in damage control.

"Your first day out and you're already ungrateful. There'll be no more days like this!" Gothel threw the golden wig to the floor and pulled Rapunzel's arm.

"We're going home, Rapunzel."

"But the Tower, Mother," Rapunzel said, probably still thinking about enjoying her few hours of freedom outside their perpetually locked apartment.

"Forget the Tower. I promise you that nothing like this will happen again in your life," Gothel said, thinking of what the girl could do for her next. What if her powers were growing and she could use it for something bigger, better. Screw the Tower when she could own the theme park of misery, just out of spite towards Mr. Grimmney.

"I don't want to go home!" The girl resisted, which was very alien to Gothel. Gothel paused. She had to rethink her strategy now that Rapunzel is out in the open. She still had to drive her back to the apartment. Everything must be done in orderly fashion. Gothel retreated and put a gentle smile with sympathetic eyes on her face.

"Oh Rapunzel," Gothel started anew.

"I know how scared you were. That man was a trespasser. I don't know what he wanted to do with you. Maybe he wanted to harm you. And I know how you wanted to be like other people. But you're not like other people. That gift of yours is very hard to control. You are lucky today that you saved a person's life. But still you didn't know what he was doing in the Tower and how he could enter this place without a pass card. For all that we know, he could be some kind of a wanted criminal, desperate to find a hiding place. And he found you here. If I hadn't got to you in time, he could have hurt you, taken you hostage, destroy you, oh -" Gothel said long-windedly with dripping drama. She saw there was still incredulity in Rapunzel's transparent face. There was something that Rapunzel knew and she was not telling her. Just a few minutes with a handsome stranger and she was already in rebellion! Gothel thought angrily.

"And where could you go? You have nothing. And I have been taking care of you all along. Where shall you sleep when it gets dark and cold? What will you eat when you get hungry? It's not going to be easy to live out there, Rapunzel."

Gothel still saw steely resolve in Rapunzel's eyes. The girl was turning eighteen any way. Her quest for freedom had started. Maybe that thing she did with the craft knife was a little over the top.

"And look at you, dear. Only a mother can love you."

With that final sentence, Rapunzel's face softened. She had broken the girl's spirit with that last sentence. She was ready to say more if that didn't work. Gothel took Rapunzel's hand and led her down the stairs.

"We're going home."

In Gothel's heart, if she ever saw that boy again, she swore she was going to cut him in half.

She would know then when she would live up to her name and make her shunned and secret ancestry proud.


	9. The Deal

**A/N: **

**PampleMousse07: My most treasured and constant reviewer. Thank you very much.**

**Melay08: Thanx for reviewing. Of course PunZ isn't ugly. It's just Mother Gothel. To Flynn, she's beautiful in her strangeness.**

**Chapter 8: The Deal**

Even in her limited point of view about the world, only seen from the windows of Mother's apartment, read and understood from the three books, and imagined in her execution of her paintings, Rapunzel knew what Mother had done was wrong. Lunging and slashing at the man with a craft knife was wrong. She could have hurt him.

But there was also some truth in what Mother had said. The man could be a criminal. How could he have entered the Tower without help from the staff? And he was incoherently moaning about the manuscript _Life After Rachel_ before he passed out. Why was he so concerned about it even at the time of near death? Did he get it from somewhere? Did he take it from someone? Did he steal it?

Rapunzel knew Mother was trying to cajole her into believing that she was fine and the incident that happened in the Tower an hour ago was just a one-time thing, but Rapunzel was on red alert. She knew there was something wrong with Mother and she did not want to make her angrier now.

But there were things that she needed to do for herself too. Mother on the other hand, would take care of herself.

"I'm taking the day off to be with you, Rapunzel," Mother announced when they had entered the apartment. She locked the door and so destroyed all her chance of experiencing the outside world after that.

"You don't have to, Mother. This is home. I'm safe here," Rapunzel said.

"Oh no. You know how much I love you dear," Mother said and kissed her bald head.

"The criminal! I could have lost you back there," she moaned next, her eyes almost in tears.

Rapunzel thought about it again. He didn't do anything to her except trespass and see her half naked. But she could question his motivation for breaking into the Tower. Suddenly, Mother's cell phone rang. Mother picked it up after her face changed when she saw who was calling her.

"I'm at my house, Mr. Grimmney," she paused. There was a faint sound of a man shouting at the other end.

"But-"

Shouting continued.

"There is no replacement for the face character."

More shouting.

"Yes, Mr. Grimmney."

Rapunzel saw Mother tearing at her hair in a moment of weakness. But then she sucked in her breath and smoothen her maroon theme park staff shirt.

"Look what you've done, Rapunzel. Now Grimmney is mad at me because of the Tower. I have to go back there," she said between clamped jaws.

"I can go with you and we'll sort this thing out," Rapunzel implored.

"After all that had happened? No, Rapunzel. Letting you go outside was a big mistake. You must stay in here, for your own good."

"And give me the book and the pen," Mother commanded, her hand held out. Rapunzel searched her tie-dye bag for the items. She was not very upset about giving them up. The book and the pen had been a nuisance to her anyway. Mother took them and clutched them tightly in her vice-like grip.

Without another word, Mother went out. She locked the inner door after she went out of it so Rapunzel could not see the view from the front door to the street.

She was alone again. Rapunzel would not dwell anymore on Mother and she headed upstairs to the window where she could see the Chinese eatery. Did he know her from their brief but intense encounter? Would he be there as he moved on with his life after the Tower incident? Would she be able to see him again? The questions went running through her mind. It was five o'clock and the late autumn darkness had set in. She was thinking how it could have been if it was differently handled. What if he had not try to come in her defence when Mother was roughing her up? What if he had continued sleeping?

Rapunzel looked out of the window, a tune escaping her lips. The one she heard from the giant wheel of spinning dead horses. This went on for a few minutes until she saw a familiar gait of a person on the street below. She felt like she was being watched. She focused on the person. He was looking up at her. It was him. The person who stumbled into Rapunzel's Tower. And there was no way of hiding from him. It seemed to her that both of them had known each other for a long time and the incident of the last hour was a much anticipated reunion. Still looking at her, he moved out of her sight. Rapunzel breathed again. She would try to forget him and he would absolutely forget her in no time with no effort at all. Rapunzel felt her stomach grumbled and she headed to the kitchen. She planned to make an omelette and make some mashed potatoes. Rapunzel went to the refrigerator and took out some eggs and onions. She began putting three potatoes in a pot of boiling water.

She was reaching for the frying pan when she suddenly she heard a creaking sound from the direction of her painting studio. She never had creepy feelings when she was alone and she heard strange noises in the apartment. Rapunzel was so frequently left alone ever since she could remember that she had come to believe that the apartment breathes like humans do to. But this time the noise seemed real. It was not the sound of the apartment breathing. It was like someone was making that noise. And the noise was very near and deliberate. Rapunzel turned off the stove. The frying pan meant for the omelette became her only weapon.

Rapunzel did not switch on the light in the corridor that led to her studio but hid in the shadows when she poked her head in the crack of the door of the room. She gasped and retreated when she saw the tall form of a man entering the studio from a window. It was unmistakably him. The man walked on around the studio, presumably looking at her paintings and sketches before he headed out of the room.

That was the moment Rapunzel swung the frying pan to his face. But he had quick reflexes too because he knew that she was waiting. Rapunzel's weapon hit him in his lower arm that was shielding his face.

"Augh!" He yelled in pain as he stumbled backwards and fell into a chair.

Rapunzel charged, frying pan ready. She was about to hit again when his strong arms sprang back and as quick as lightning, held back her advancing hands. But he held his face away from her, wincing.

"Wait! Not the face! Not the face!" He yelled.

"I don't want to hurt you," he continued, still wincing.

"I want to talk. We need to talk," he said, letting go of her hands.

"Who are you? Why did you come in here?" Rapunzel asked, weapon still held aloft.

"OK Baldie," he said, apprehensively referring to her hairdo.

"The name's Rapunzel," she hissed.

"Ra- what? Whatever. I work across the street, in the Chinese eatery."

"You don't just work there. You stole something and chose the theme park Tower as a hide out."

"Yeah, yeah. See the thing is," he paused and continued, "I need that manuscript, _Life After Rachel_, and I believe that you or your mother, or abusive guardian has it."

"How dare you break into my home and threaten me so I can give you what you want."

"Believe me, Baldie. I tried the front door. Knocked like a mad man. But I think the door is like a space ship containment chamber or something, and I had to find another way in. Scaled the back of the apartment, pried apart the padlock, trade secret, so here I am, asking you nicely," the man said. The amount of words he used amused her. And his request was very interesting.

"By the way, the name's Flynn Rider," he said giving her a smile with all his upper teeth showing and his eyes drawn to slits as his head tilted to one side. Rapunzel pursed her lips in discomfort. What was he trying to do with his face like that? Her grip on the frying pan tightened. She had to speak now before he did many more of his strange antics.

"Alright Flynn Rider," she enunciated.

"You will get back your backpack and manuscript on one condition."

"What is that?"

"You must take me to Medieval Weekend. I want to see everything there - the Kingdom Dance, the Jousting, the Classes, the launch of the Lanterns for the missing children. And only after I deemed myself satisfied with your conduct as you take me through the events, only then, I will bring you to your backpack and the manuscript."

The man's face looked as if he was being tortured.

"Oh come on, Baldie! Medieval Weekend is the most idiotic event ever held by the University. Make believe battles, costumes, and the resources-wasting floating lanterns. I've been in the University four years and not once I attended Medieval Weekend. But I did enjoy attending one of the free classes on writing fantasy. Are you sure you wanna waste this 'ransom-holding' thing with Medieval Weekend?"

"To each her own. I want this. Or you can tear apart the whole town and never find the manuscript."

"Look, Baldie. There is so much promise in our future together. And you just want to destroy everything with this bad beginning? I know you've been looking at me all the while as you sit near your window."

"And you I," Rapunzel replied and continued, "you even gestured at me a few times. While I was looking at you out of purely artistic interest."

"I can see that," the man Flynn Rider said as he looked at the nearest sketch pinned to an easel. It was a study of the male anatomy.

"I can see how inspired you were when you did this. You even got the nose right, among other things. Well done!" He exclaimed.

"Is it a deal?" Rapunzel asked for confirmation. The man Flynn Rider gave no response. He seemed to be thinking deeply.

"Because if you agree to this deal, I will make sure that you will get your _Rachel._"

He was still mulling about it, his lips twisted with the effort of thinking.

"And when I make a promise, I never break that promise. EVER."

The man sighed. He looked at her and breathed. He seemed to have given up on her from not making him make a promise.

"I don't wanna have to do this but you leave me no choice," he said solemnly.

"Here comes the smolder," he continued under his breath.

What? She asked inside. _Smolder_. What does the word mean? Mother had used the word once. _The fire was still smoldering the next day_. It was a snatch of memory from the accident which claimed their first house. From that sentence alone, she had been able to gage the meaning of the word. Smolder. To burn slowly without a flame. Was he going to slowly combust right in front of her?

Flynn Rider lowered his face and then held it up again. His lips were twisted like he was in pain and his eyes were like Mother squinting when she was trying to look at something too far away. Rapunzel gnashed her teeth impatiently. And after a few seconds, Flynn Rider seemed to have given up on his endeavour, whatever it was.

"It's not working, is it?" He asked, traces of the so-called 'smolder' still remaining on his face.

"Is it supposed to work?" Rapunzel asked she held up her once lowered frying pan.

"Oh alright," Flynn Rider exclaimed in frustration, and made the deal.

"I'll take you to Medieval Weekend, the dance, the events and the lanterns."

"Yes!" Rapunzel squealed with joy. The man looked at her as if she was an alien from outer space.

"And then I will get my _Rachel_."

"I promise you, Flynn Rider."

"Are you sure you're not under medical arrest for chemotherapy?" Flynn asked her and gestured at her head.

"I don't have cancer," Rapunzel said, now slightly embarrassed at her mother's insensitivity to fashion.

"OK let's do this. Twenty four hours and we'll part ways happy and complete individuals," Flynn announced as he got up from the chair. Then he stopped in the midst of his stride.

"But how about your mother?"

"She wouldn't know. And by the time I get back it's too late for her to do anything."

"You just make sure she'll not find me again OK? Because I don't think she likes me."

Rapunzel nodded. In the outside world, would Mother wield the knife like she did in the cramped and narrow Tower where no one could see her? She wouldn't dare, Rapunzel thought.

"Let me worry about my mother, Flynn Rider. You worry about me enjoying myself during Medieval Weekend."


	10. Guide

**Melay8: I'm so happy you get the 'Baldie' thing. I'm trying to make this thing as down-to-earth as I can. And because of your comment I just realize that 'Rachel' rhymes with 'satchel'. And will he get his Rachel in the end?**

**PampleMousse70: It's very hard to stay true to the original animated feature in a modern take and maintain its groundedness. I'll try my best.**

**An Unknown Foreign Beauty: Glad you're back!**

**Chapter 9: Guide**

"Are you coming, Baldie?"

The girl seemed to be holding her breath and muttering to herself. Whatever was she harping to herself about? It was just a set of stairs. The whole endeavour was getting stranger and stranger as he went along with it.

Flynn took her tie-dye bag from her shoulders. She let out one petite black jeans clad leg out of the window and then out came another. As she stretched her lithe body, Flynn saw her dark purple blouse skimp two inches from her waist and he felt his throat constrict. Her feet landed on the narrow ledge under the window. Before she could throw herself off balance, Flynn caught her by the exposed flesh on her waist. The contact bought a shudder into his being. He could smell her. Her perfect skin brought warmth to his coldness. He cursed silently at the strange girl, causing him so much torture and ecstasy at the same time after just a few minutes of encounter.

She stepped on the ladder leading to the ground with the caution of someone who was going to touch caustic compounds, while he had trundled down fast. But then she broke into a sprint, taking over him and then a few steps from touching the ground, she stopped.

"Go ahead, I'm fine," Flynn called out. With that, the girl Rapunzel jumped off the ladder and landed on the tarmac, skipping and flailing her arms in the air.

"Yippee!" she shrieked.

"What is going on?" Flynn swore.

But the girl's euphoria was short lived when suddenly she turned pale and her body trembled.

"I suggest you keep the hysterics to a minimum."

She was not speaking, let alone jumping with joy.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Flynn asked.

"It's cold," she said, covering her bare neck.

Oh momma, Flynn sighed. In her excitement to go see Medieval Weekend, Baldie had forgotten to dress herself accordingly to the weather. But who on earth would forget to dress herself for this kind of weather? Hadn't she ever been out before? The thought crossed his mind but that was impossible. He had met her outside. He meant, in the Tower in the theme park.

"Oh," he said and quickly took off his hoodie. He pulled it over her one arm, and pulled it over her other. Then, he pulled the headpiece over her bare head.

"I don't mind chicks with punk/ goth /skinhead /whatever style, but I think you need to protect the house of your cranium or else your brain will freeze."

She gave a small laugh.

"You're very kind for a thief," the girl said.

Flynn balked at the statement but decided that he was going to roll with the punches.

"I remember the terms of our agreement – my part of the deal is to make sure your satisfaction during this whole Medieval Weekend thing. And you not being frozen to death is part of that deal," he cleared his throat, desperately wanting to keep his reluctant hostage role.

"Do you feel better now?" He found himself asking despite his reluctance.

"Thank you."

They reached the street and Flynn stopped at a payphone.

"Hey, Baldie. I need to make a phone call. Wait for me, okay?"

He put in a phone card and punched a series of numbers that he memorised. After the he heard a voice at the other end, he spoke.

"Hi Miss Walker."

"Eugene!" The woman exclaimed in utter joy, calling him the name he had tried to forget. He was right not to come and visit her to see how she is doing or else she is going to reveal his true identity to the girl. But why must he care? Flynn almost slapped his head. He didn't know. He felt that he had the urge to impress the girl with his worldly ways.

"I'm calling to know how you're doing."

"I'm fine, Eugene."

"I'm just gonna tell you, Miss Walker, that I'm not going to visit this Saturday. Something's come up and I have to take care of it."

"Don't you worry about me, Eugene. You just bought me grocery on Thursday, so I won't be needing any until Sunday."

"And if I'm late on Sunday don't you worry about me, Miss Walker. But I'll come around. Sooner or later."

"Are you going somewhere far from here, Eugene?"

"No, I'm around."

"Is this about a girl?"

"No, Miss Walker, it's not about a girl," Flynn's voice thinned to a squeaky whisper.

"Is she there with you?"

"Miss Walker, I –"

"You don't have to be shy. You know I've been waiting for the day you bring a girl to my door."

"She's not-"

"Let me speak to her,"

Rapunzel was actually so close behind him; Flynn could smell her sweet aroma. She practically had her face on his back, ears tuned to the conversation. Without a word, Flynn handed the phone to Rapunzel. Flynn saw that the girl took it with a gleam in her eyes, as if she had never spoken to anyone on the phone. She put the phone gingerly to the side of her face and spoke cautiously.

"Hello, Miss Walker?"

"What is your name, my dear girl?"

"My name is Rapunzel."

"What a sweet old name. Well, I don't want to hold you further from your day together. Have fun. He'll take good care of you."

"Thank you, Miss Walker."

"Good bye, Rapunzel."

Flynn gestured to her that he needed to talk to Miss Walker. Rapunzel gave the phone back to Flynn.

"What a sweet girl."

"Yes, Miss Walker," Flynn sighed and continued, "Did you see anyone suspicious hanging around your flat? Two red heads, very large young men, one with eye patch and another with scarred chin."

"No, who are they?"

"They're just vandals. If they just so even touch your name plate on the entrance you must call the police."

"No, but I did see some men with riding a black van, wearing black suits and sunglasses hanging around the place about thirty minutes ago. They didn't do anything though."

"Oh," Flynn paled.

He knew she was talking about the Mafia. But why? Were the Stabbingtons stealing for the Mafia? Was he stealing for the Stabbingtons who were stealing for the Mafia? But nothing was certain. Hopefully, he was just getting paranoid.

"You just take care, Miss Walker. I'll visit as soon as I can."

"Don't you worry about me, Eugene. Have a great time with your sweet Rapunzel."

"Yeah, yeah. Thanks. Good bye, Miss Walker."

"Good bye."

He ended the call.

"Flynn, who is Miss Walker?"

"I'm sorry, Baldie. But it's not in our agreement that I have to tell you anything."

"She's a nice lady. She really likes you."

"Yeah. I realise that happens a lot to women I come in contact with. Err, by the way what did she say to you? About me?"

"Miss Walker said that you'll take good care of me."

"Ahah-"

"Whatever that means," the girl shrugged.

"Yeah. Whatever that means," Flynn gushed.

There was a moment of awkward silence between the two of them before Flynn breathed again and announced dramatically.

"Come on! Let's get this Medieval Weekend on the roll."

Flynn walked on. Rapunzel followed. As they began their seemingly insignificant journey, Flynn began thinking about the men hanging around the flat. And where were the Stabbingtons? They should have shown up knowing right in front of him now that they knew he was supposed to have what they wanted. Or were they already in lock up?

One thing at a time, he breathed. One thing at a time.

Miss Walker would be fine at least until Sunday morning. He would get back his manuscript and his student ID after the floating lanterns were launched. And life will go on like all this trouble was nothing but the stain of breath on a mirror.

Twenty four hours. Just twenty four hours. What could happen in twenty four hours? Flynn asked himself and smiled.

Everything's looking up.


	11. Dagger

**Author's Note:**

**Melay8: Maximus and Pascal, argh. I love them in the film. But to put them in a darker retelling is going to be very hard or very awkward. **

**Romance and Musicals: I realize that this story is very slow going. And that sucks because it's a retelling where everyone knows the ending. Well, half of the world knew the ending of 'Tangled' before it reached the cinemas. But did that stop them from catching it at the cinemas and making it a box-office success? No. Hoefully you too can enjoy this story while knowing how it's gonna end all the way you're reading. There are still surprises here and there though.**

**PampleMousse07: Thank you for sticking with me.**

**Chapter 10: Dagger**

The spider beckoned to the fly. Mr. Grimmney was waiting at the back of the Tower. But he wasn't doing anything to make the people standing at the base of the Tower to go away. He was just there waiting for her so he could make her clean all the mess and while at it put her up for emotional torture, Gothel was sure of that.

"Miss Bathory, what a mess you've made," he said. And Gothel wasn't just about to stand there and take everything the way she always did.

"You didn't give me that promotion."

"I had a hunch something would go wrong. And I was right."

"Well, it seemed that you've prepared yourself for this."

Mr. Grimmney sensed something strange is happening to Gothel and he decided to play the best card he had left up in his sleeve.

"I ask you again, Miss Bathory, do you want to keep your job?"

Gothel could not answer. She knew that she had trouble letting go and Mr. Grimmney knew it. She could not let go. She could not let go the fact that the University Press rejected her manuscript. She could not let go of the benefits she had by having Rapunzel's ability always at her disposal because she couldn't live without her good luck charm. She could not let go of the Grimmney theme park because she believed that if she stayed long enough there she would make something good out of it. Her dissatisfaction towards her employer had festered like cancerous cells that she even thought of owning the very place she hated. By what means or device she did not know but the answer to it, she believed, was in the book and the pen with the enchantment put by Facilier, right in her large handbag. And it had to be done by the girl she had taken into captivity since she was an infant, locked in her apartment.

"I thought so," Mr. Grimmney said smugly. "Fix this thing, Miss Bathory."

In the light of the current event, a park hand had removed the 'sorry-for-the-inconvenience' sign and people had lined up to see Rapunzel let down her hair.

"Ten percent of your month's pay is going to reimburse these visitors' ticket price."

But Gothel knew the truth. Mr. Grimmney never reimbursed visitors' ticket. He would just take it for his holiday to the Far East. The visitor made faces at her and some yelled. But she took the sign out from the Tower and put it right back in its previous spot. Gothel retreated into the Tower and locked it in.

Gothel let it fly inside the Tower. She cursed and screamed and hit things with her hands. She kicked the stacked up utility boxes under the stairs. They tumbled down and they made satisfyingly apocalyptic noise. One of the boxes fell and up-ended its contents because its lid was not properly secured.

Gothel saw it in an instant. It was not theme park property but a backpack. She had never seen it before. She wondered who it belonged to and she had a paralyzing suspicion that she knew. She unzipped the bag and upended it contents. A bottle of drinking water and two paper bindings tumbled out. She took the thicker one and read the printed words on the cover.

_A Memoir of Loss and Hope: Life After Rachel _by Algernon & Anna Kingsley.

Gothel threw the thing away like it was on fire.

_The past!_ She thought she was safe beyond reach. But this! The consequences of her crime were staring right at her in the face. She took the other piece of work and read it. _Criminal Journalism 401: The Future Vindication of Elizabeth Bathory: The Longevity of Criminal Myths & Mass Journalism by Flynnigan A. Rider. University of Corona, Bachelor of Mass Communication._

Flynnigan Rider! The tresspasser. And the look on Rapunzel's face, as if she was hiding something. Gothel knew it now. The reason behind it was as clear as cut glass. So he was not a random trespasser. He meant to find her, for whatever reason. Maybe he had seen her and recognized the uncanny resemblance to the age progression photos of the missing baby. Maybe he was sent by the Kingsleys to find her. Maybe he was on this passionate academic hunt for his dissertation topic.

Whatever the reason for him was, Gothel knew she must put an end to this. She could not wipe out the Kingsleys, but she could eliminate the link between Rapunzel and her real parents.

Rapunzel! Gothel gasped. What if he had never given up from finding her? Carrying the backpack and its incriminating contents, Gothel made a mad dash out of the Tower, forsaking the visitors, abandoning the theme park.

To hell with the Tower! Gothel cursed. The consequences of her sadistic urge to watch the Kingsleys suffer had come back to her tenfold. She should have moved far away from the University a long, long time ago. Forget the theme park, forget everything. Yes, she did not have the means back then but after few years she had it. But she did not take the necessary action. But now she must. She would take Rapunzel; from this godawful place and start a new life far from here. She threw the back pack into her van, started the engine and sped like a devil to the apartment. Parking the vehicle haphazardly, she ran into the block, climbed the stairs, opened the two doors, not locking the inner one and called Rapunzel's name.

For the first time in her life, there was no answer. She ran to the girl's loft. Rapunzel was not there. The tie-dye bag she gave her was also gone. The black scarf however was left on her bed, like a black coiled snake. Gothel went to the girl's studio with outrageous hope. She found one of the windows' padlocks to the grille was open and she knew the truth. Rapunzel could not have opened the padlock without help. The kind of help from someone who was able to enter the Tower's auto-locked door. The help of a thief.

"Ah!" Gothel tore at her own hair. Her eyes bulged like a reptile's.

"Where can you be? Where will you go?"

Gothel remembered the flyer Rapunzel showed her. The University's Medieval Weekend! If the connection was true, he was probably taking her to the very place that Gothel did not want her to go.

Gothel ran out of the apartment and got into her van once again. She started the engine and drove to the Main Street and headed out to the University. A red neon sign got her attention. It said 'Killer & Sons: Firearms Dealer.' But there was no parking space for about a hundred meters from the establishment. She had to make a turn and find the nearest spot available. She found one in front of a pharmacy. As she went out from the vehicle, she saw the pharmacy and stopped in front of it. She could have entered the place and get herself her Seroquel but said no instead and walked on while seething with self- inflicted rage to the arms dealer.

A small man with a balding head, thin moustache, five o'clock shadow and dark rings under his eyes was manning the counter.

"I need a gun," Gothel said hoarsely.

"You're in luck, we have a new ware today," the man said excitedly and went into the backroom. He came back with a metal box.

"Perfect for a lady like you."

"I want nothing lady-like."

"Wait till you see it."

The man opened the box and presented to her a slim-barrelled hand gun, with tapering muzzle and a firm comfortable handle.

"The Dagger, 9 by 19 mm," he said.

Gothel's eyes gleamed at the sight of it. The body was of grey metallic sheen with pebble coloured handle.

"The Dagger," she enunciated, relishing every syllable.

"Yours for five hundred."

"I have five hundred."

"May I have a look at your firearms license?"

"Do I need a licence to protect my family? Do I need to protect my only daughter from the threat of a criminal in these violent times?"

"Six hundred without a license for processing fee."

"Tell me what it does."

"What?"

"Tell me what it does!"

"Basically, you take off the safety here," the man demonstrated as he said it, "and then you point", as he aimed at the back of the store.

"And pull the trigger."

"And then the small calibre bullet will tear apart a tendon at the very least, or ligament, bone or organ, rendering the part useless. Or at the minimum cause massive bleeding that it goes untreated will cause certain death."

"Here's your six hundred."

Gothel dumped twelve fifty dollar bills on the counter and become the happily demented owner of 'The Dagger'.

And she's headed out to the University to see the lanterns too.


	12. Of Promises

**Author's Note:**

**Kyoru-KiTTy_Artist: That is great observation. I changed the symbolic 'hair' with the thematic concept of imprisonment, I guess. I hope that decision will not irk you too much.**

**PampleMousse07: Despite the intensity, I got some fluff coming too.**

**Romance and Musicals: The problem is, shit is already real this time. Strangely, Gothel is the character I identify with (in this version) most as I have been rejected as a writer and abused as an employee. So, here's to Gothel's angst!**

**And to the rest of my most patient and generous readers, here's a trip down memory of the original 'Tangled'.**

**Chapter 11: Of Promises **

He never thought that traversing the shop-littered streets would be such an ordeal. Even the most mundane establishment became a high point for the extraordinary Rapunzel. She stopped and looked into every window and rested her nose on the glass, leaving a layer of thin oil that drove the shop assistants crazy. Flynn was counting the seconds, worried and anxious about a palpable threat. He knew he had promised Rapunzel to be her guide and her loyal servant until the launch of the lanterns at the climax of Medieval Weekend but he just got other things in his mind, like the Stabbington brothers, the Mafia and of course, Rapunzel's very own mother.

Soon, the girl under his charge shared his exact sentiments when they arrived at an electronics shop which displayed an array of flat screen televisions. The screens were alive with images from a live TV broadcast.

"They are people in that flat box," Rapunzel whispered to him in horror mixed with wonder.

What? Flynn swallowed his own spit. She didn't have TV? She never had TV? Even those old black and white ones?

"I wonder if Mother can see me through those things too," she continued, still whispering, in fear this time.

Because the issue of appeasing any thought about Mother was very important right now, to both Rapunzel and himself, Flynn took the time to explain it to her. Even though he felt that it was surreal to do it, explaining the truth about live journalism to a girl of college-going age in this day and era.

"No, she can't. Unless we have people with video cameras focusing at you and they send your pictures back to the station to be broadcasted. But that is very unlikely because I'm what I am, a college student doing freelance job. And you, er, just being you," Flynn said, hesitating to ask because he was afraid SHE would find him weird. He thought himself as someone who has seen much of the world, but was he wrong the day he really met her.

"Oh look. Books!"Rapunzel squealed and bounced into a second hand bookshop. She touched and picked and smelled them. She picked up a few with the cover displaying swooning women in the arms of half-naked men. Flynn noticed that Rapunzel's eyes bulged with interest looking at the covers.

"Interested?" Flynn asked.

"Very much! Mother had only given me three books in my life."

"Like, your entire life?" Flynn asked, now his eyes were bulging. He knew he had grown in a disadvantaged environment, in an orphanage to be exact, but he was he was and still a voracious reader. And his disadvantaged circumstance in life had never denied him that pleasure. Partly, thanks to Miss Walker. He had read at least fifty books in the Flynnigan Rider series alone, and he read countless more outside the series. If there was his version of hell on earth, it has to be living with only three books.

"What are they?"

"_How To Survive Anything, Anywhere_ by Chris McNab, General Editor."

"Excellent choice," Flynn balked.

"_The A-Z of First Aid and Complete Family Health_, by the St. John Ambulance International."

"I can see the importance of it," Flynn swallowed more of his own spit.

"And _The Artist's Manual_," Rapunzel announced proudly.

"No wonder."

"I'd love to have all these," she sighed. Oh momma, Flynn breathed. And this is just a second hand bookshop. She hadn't seen the University Bookshop or the humungous University of Corona library. That building even had wings and annexes filled with books. If she ever saw it, he was afraid she'd never want to leave.

"Hey Baldie, I don't wanna be a party-pooper, but these books are not given away free. I mean, do you have cash on you?"

"No," Rapunzel answered dejectedly. Flynn pursed his lips regretfully.

"See. These things need money for you to own. I have some but not a lot. And I have to spend that so and so amount of money for food and board during YOUR Medieval Weekend thing. So, resource is limited."

"OK, OK," Rapunzel nodded and put them back onto the shelf. Crest-fallen, she exited the shop. Flynn watched the defeated shape of the hooded head and swore. He rummaged the fistful of books she had put back and chose one the best he could.

_My Charming Bandit_ by Sarah Walker. It had this cover picturing a long haired brunette with green eyes on bed with a shirtless brown-haired monster of a man. Me in steroids, pfff, Flynn grimaced. _But I'm good. I'm fine like this._ The elderly lady cashier smiled at him appreciatively as he paid two dollars for it. He tried to avoid eye contact. Flynn felt like killing himself. Once he was outside, he pushed the book into her hand.

"For me?" She asked and flipped open the pages before putting in her tie-dye bag.

"It's discounted."

"Thank you, Flynn. Mmm, Flynn? I've been doing a lot of watching. I see all these people talking to these small phones in their ears. Don't you have one?"

" A cell phone?"

"Yes, a cell phone."

"I don't own a cell phone because I've got no one to call –" Flynn stopped in mid-sentence.

"I'm not doing this," he muttered. "C'mon, Baldie. We're going to the University via a place where there is much less distraction. Have you been to the Corona Botanical Park?"

"The Park? No. Never."

"Great. We're gonna walk through that place all the way to the University."

Flynn's plan backfired when Rapunzel began to change mode once they entered the gate of the Corona Botanical Park. Seeing the wide open space, unhindered by vehicles and buildings, Rapunzel broke into a sprint and started squealing. Fortunately, the lack of people around made Flynn not bothering to apologetically shush her or stop her from doing whatever she wanted. And everything was what she did.

At first, Flynn watched in amazement as the girl crash-landed on the green meadow and rolled on the grass. Her tacky looking jogging shoes which looked like they were bought in the nineties were amazingly suitable for the task of sprinting and leaping.

And when she saw a small brook of running clear water, she kicked off her chunky trainers and jumped into the brook.

"It's cold, mind you," Flynn reminded her as he began checking his fingernails and picking lint from his knuckles. Rapunzel splashed in the water before she finally went out and started moaning.

"Hey Flynn?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you think Mother is looking for me right now?"

"It's your call, Baldie. I mean, does look like that I'm the one who wants to be here?"

"She's going to be so mad at me. She's going to kill me."

"Errr..." Flynn tried not to be reminded of the Tower incident which nearly claimed his life. The fear was so palpable. He could not believe that this girl is referring to her Mother like the woman was worried about her. It was so clear that the woman had made Rapunzel's mind very twisted with her brand of childcare and upbringing.

And finally, Rapunzel sat on a rock in emotional fatigue.

"I'm so scared, Flynn. She'll be so mad," she began sobbing

As if Mother wasn't mad in the first place, Flynn wanted to say, but he found an opportunity in this sudden turn of event. He rose to the occasion confidently. He walked towards her and began his speech.

"I can't help but notice that you're a little at war with yourself here."

"Sniff," Rapunzel breathed.

"I mean, this trip to the University, Medieval Weekend, floating lanterns, these are all serious stuff."

"They are!" Rapunzel chimed.

"But let me just tell you something. This is just a part of growing up. A little adventure, a little rebellion...that's good. _Healthy_, even."

"It is?" She asked, feeling a little bit better. But he didn't want to take her there.

"Does your mother deserve it? No. Would this break her heart and crush her soul? Of course, but you just got to do it."

"Break her heart?"

"In half."

"Crush her soul?"

" Like a grape."

He looked around for something fairly small to crush but found nothing and used his own fist instead.

Flynn saw Rapunzel's face grimaced and paled. Flynn thought that whatever he was doing, it was working really well.

"Come on, let me send you home. Show me where you stash my bag and I'll get you back to you Mother, without her seeing me, of course," Flynn said, unable to stand any second longer of this weirdness. It was getting too complicated even for him. He was ready to get back to his mundane academic life, after settling everything with the Stabbingtons and forever severing his ties with them and everything connected to them, of course.

"No! I'm still going to Medieval Weekend and see the lanterns," Rapunzel yelled at him with determined eyes. Flynn gnashed his teeth.

"Oh come one, Baldie! What does it take for me to get my stuff back?"

"A promise is a promise. Keep the part of your bargain and I'll keep mine. Did no one tell you before that a person's worth are his words."

"Okay, okay! Enough with this promise thing. It's going to be the death of me. Sheesh!

A grunt came from behind the bushes, which rustled violently. Rapunzel jumped and took Flynn's arms. Flynn watched in shock.

"Who's there?" She said from her hide out behind his back.

A man, with large dirty beard, dressed in dirty overalls and heavy coat, pushing a full supermarket trolley appeared from behind some shrubbery. He was picking up empty soda cans and beer bottles people had thrown in the bushes.

"How are you all doin'?" The man said to them both and went on his way, with the wheels of his trolley squeaking along the way.

"We're fine, sir," Flynn answered for both of them.

"Watch out for those killer bunnies," the man laughed as his voice trailed as he continued talking and talking endlessly.

"I'm sorry that I'm a bit jumpy!" Rapunzel laughed nervously.

"It's best that we avoid thugs and teen hooligans though," Flynn said, deep in thought.

"That'll probably be the best," Rapunzel breathed deeply.

An idea suddenly crossed his mind. A brilliant one!

"Hey, are you hungry?"

"I'm starving, actually."

"I know a great place for dinner. Come on, let me show you."

He took her hand and let her away to a place just on the outskirt of the park.

Oh momma, this plan's gotta work or else he wouldn't survive the next 23 hours, he gushed.


	13. Escape

**Dear readers, sorry for the delay of update. This chapter is so very difficult to write. So for the stuff that appears stunted and lame, sorry! Suggestions are welcomed if you all feel like sharing. **

**Chapter 12: Escape**

The walk out of the park was fast when Flynn used a short cut that went across a few large ditches and a few small hill climbs. All the while, Flynn was holding her hand, guiding her over the rough terrain. Rapunzel couldn't tell whether it was the concerned side of him or he just wanted to get there as fast as they could, her experience with human interaction being so limited. Finally, the establishment meant by Flynn came into being. It was like a block of building had appeared out of nowhere and stood itself in front of her. The place was isolated but its visitors did not isolate it. They were fierce looking vehicles and large motorcycles parked outside, and all sorts of characters were milling about the sidewalks.

"Ah! The Black Swan! A quaint place. Perfect for you! Don't want you to start scaring and gave up this whole endeavour," Flynn exclaimed excitedly.

The Black Swan was made up of a pool hall, a drinking hole and an adult entertainment centre. Rapunzel knew that by reading the signs upon each smaller unit in the conjoined building. Flynn ceremoniously made an entrance by opening the swinging door to the eatery wide and making as much noise as he could, attracting all the patrons' attention.

"Dude, your finest table please!" He said to a random disgruntled looking man standing by the door with arms folded. His shirt was printed with the word 'Security'.

"You sit where you can put your ass on, college boy."

"What fine manners you have, good sir."

Flynn turned to Rapunzel and yelled into her ears as he was fighting some sort of blaring music.

"See, Baldie. Good people they are, with tattoos on their arms. And spiky metal studs on their clothes. I bet all of them have some sort of concealed weapons in the persons."

"Flynn, if you could just lower your voice down and not attract too much attention," Rapunzel warned him uncomfortably because she was seeing a few large men with heavy eyes were leaving their seats and coming to their directions.

"No, it's you they're after, Baldie. You look like you just ran away from the chemotherapy ward, or something," Flynn said, gesturing dramatically at her whole being.

"Err, Flynn. I don't think this is a good place to eat."

"It's the cheapest around. I have warned you that I don't have much on me."

One of the men advancing toward them had finally came face to face with Flynn, which was quite unexpected because Flynn had told her they were after her. Mother had told her that too, that people can just KNOW what she was capable of. And they would either hunt her or shun her. But it seemed that it was Flynn that these men were interested in. Rapunzel knew that Flynn was a tall person, with her head only at his chest. But the man who was talking to Flynn was three heads taller than Flynn. He was huge. He didn't take of f his helmet when he sat down in the eatery. The man held a square photo to Flynn's face. Rapunzel could see it. It was a photo of Flynn with an old lady sitting on a park bench. Miss Walker, she knew. On the white space below the photo was written 'Wanted by the Mafia. Reward.' The man had taken it off from a bulletin board pasted with many other photos as such.

"It this you?" The huge man with the helmet asked Flynn.

"Umm, no," Flynn answered, pale to the very lips.

"It's him alright," another man, shorter, but just as huge answered.

Flynn did not wait. As Flynn made a mad dash to the door, all hell in the pub broke loose. A few men were scrambling for Flynn and one had him cornered before he could reach the door. Another hit him with a beer bottle. Rapunzel looked in horror as Flynn reeled to the floor, clutching his bleeding head. She knew that he was being nasty to her on purpose but Flynn didn't deserve this. She knew there was a reason behind him wanting to rush on the task and even hesitant to take her along the quest. But Rapunzel was so desperate for this. And the moment she left the apartment, she knew that she was way in too deep and there was no way of going back. Mother would be furious anyway, and she might as well go on with it. Then man who hit Flynn was swinging the already broken bottle the second time and she knew broken bottle with skin would bring nothing good. Rapunzel hopped on the man's back and choked him with her arms, using the strongest force she could apply. She almost made the man unable to breathe but she was a small girl with limitations. The man was spinning round and round to shake her off and the antics were amusing to the other patrons and they started staring and laughing.

"Leave him alone!" Rapunzel screamed.

"Get off me, you freak!" The man yelled. With one desperate force, the man managed to grab hold her of her blouse and held her at arms' length from his face. Rapunzel knew she was no match for this man. She shook her head and the hoodie covering her head fell back to her neck. The man gasped at her baldness.

"I AM DYING!" Rapunzel screamed and everybody heard her. Everybody was paying attention. Even Flynn.

"This is my final day with my boyfriend before they take me away to that hospital and keep me there until God knows when. Please let us go!"

"What?" The man gasped and gently put her down.

"My mama had cancer and she died last year," the man sniffed.

"Well, I'm sorry."

"You're sorry? You are dying and you're sorry?"

"Well, everybody's gotta die sometime," Rapunzel answered with a lopsided smile.

"Hey man, I'm sorry," The man said as he pulled Flynn to his feet, clutching his bleeding head.

"What?" Flynn said, fighting dizziness. Blood was dripping onto his forehead.

"Do you know your girlfriend is dying of cancer?"

"Can- yes, she is! Stage 6. There is no more stage after that. Her last day. The end of it!" Flynn said.

"You make her happy, capisci? "

"Capisci!" Flynn answered. The man thumped on his shoulder.

"Go now!"

"Man, Al Hapone's men are coming. Someone's called the Mafia! This guy's a goner," a voice called.

"What? So fast?" Flynn grunted in fear.

And with the Mafia came the police. The sound of sirens was getting near. Flynn grabbed Rapunzel's hand.

"Help us out of here!" Rapunzel said to the huge man who now had tears in his eyes. But it was too late. Someone had already opened fire. All entrance was blocked. The Mafia and the police were having a shootout of the decade in the God-forsaken joint.

"C'mon! At least one good thing before I die," the man said and led them to the labyrinthine back part of the establishment. Women and men in various states of undress emerged screaming at the place descend into bedlam of firepower and sirens.

"Hide in there till this whole thing die down!" He said as he pushed Rapunzel into a small janitor's closet and crammed bleeding Flynn into it. He closed the door and Rapunzel were no longer able to see anything after that. Only a slice of light came from under the door. She heard people shouting and gunfire and the sound of a body dropping to the floor. Seconds later, blood came seeping under the door.

"Oh!" Rapunzel gasped. Flynn looked like he was suffering from acute nausea.

"Hey, don't look," he said and held her by the shoulders. He put her head in the crook of his neck. A bullet ricocheted and lodged itself into the door, just above Flynn's shoulder. There was a sound of smaller explosions as electrical points and gases met with fire power. Never had before Rapuznel felt so much fear. All her life, she only feared Mother's anger and the thought of Mother abandoning her. This time, she could feel the fear of being killed by stray bullets and fire.

"I'm so sorry, Flynn. I've should never asked you to do it. It's a mistake going out of the apartment. My mother was right."

Flynn looked at her with the same kind of wariness but a little bit more ready. Like he had given up all together. He looked down for a second and muttered.

"My real name's Eugene. Eugene Fitzherbert. Someone might as well know."

Rapunzel blinked away her tears and gave a weak smile.

"When I write, the words I write will become true."

"What?" Flynn, or the young man who had just confessed his real name as Eugene said.

"Stuff I write will become true!"

Rapunzel whispered nervously and began rummaging through her jeans pocket. She took out a piece of folded paper and smoothed out the crumpled surface.

"Do you have a pen?"

"Yes," Flynn/ Eugene said and took out a pen from his vest pocket.

Rapunzel muttered as she began writing on the piece of paper she salvaged from the journal before it was taken away by Mother. Mother had always asked her to use the special pen she bought from out of town from some guy she called Facilier, but Rapunzel was hoping her 'witchery' is strong enough to achieve the effect she wanted. She wrote down the words as she muttered them.

_I dream of Medieval Weekend_

_ I even got myself a friend_

_ Trapped here with both ends_

_ Open a door back to the land._

The sound of shootings outside got even more fierce.

"Hey, there's something here," Flynn said. The faint light made out a square tracing on the floor. Flynn pried it open and revealed a large sewer hole right under the janitor's room. A way out. A quick search on in the janitor's cabinet procured a flashlight.

"After you, Baldie," Flynn. Rapunzel jumped into the hole guided by the light shone by Eugene. Right after the Flynn got into the hole, the room collapsed under fire and explosions. Flynn barely made it out as dust and debris fell on him.

"Are you alright?" Rapunzel asked.

"I'm fine," Eugene/ Flynn said, jumping like a scalded cat from the hole.

"Let's get the hell outta here," he said, holding out his hand. She took it and they both ran along the labyrinth of the sewer system beneath the city of Corona as the Black Swan burned to the ground.


	14. A Changed Man

**This chapter is dedicated to AIOFaNCRM who pointed out numeous glaring mistakes due to my insensitivity. Thank you very much. This has been a valuable lesson.**

**A Changed Man**

After thirty minutes of manoeuvring in the dark underworld of Corona, Rapunzel and Flynn ended up at a dead end with a manhole over his head. The hand towel Rapunzel gave to Eugene/ Flynn to staunch the bleeding was already thoroughly wet. But Eugene's stamina was extraordinary. He showed no sign of faltering in his steps.

"Here we go," Eugene said as he got on the vertical stairs and pushed open the manhole cover. He emerged at the back alley of a familiar street.

"We're safe," he said and held out his hand to Rapunzel. Rapunzel climbed out of the sewer.

"Where are we?"

"My lovely neighbourhood. Can't believe my luck. This is awesome," Eugene said and without a second thought invited her to his place.

"It's getting dark. Let's go to my flat."

The two walked many more back alleys, Rapunzel this time more used to its denizens sleeping in the streets and not hiding behind Eugene's back every time she saw one. Eugene arrived at the back part of a block of a tall residential building and beck Rapunzel to follow him climb up many more set of stairs. Eugene opened the lock of a back door.

"Why don't you use the front door?"

"I haven't paid my rent and I've got a string of other problems too."

"The people looking for you don't know you live here?"

"That's why I don't use the front door."

Rapunzel nodded knowingly. The two entered a modestly sized living space, undecorated but nicely cluttered. Eugene immediately fell into a brown sofa in the living room, moaning.

"Let me take a look at that," Rapunzel said as she pried the hand towel from Eugene's head. The blood had crusted on his dark brown hair and it didn't look very hygienic.

"Ouch."

"You've got to go to the hospital."

"I'm NEVER going to the hospital."

"Never say never."

"Not tonight, Baldie. The whole city is crawling with people looking for me."

Rapunzel thought of something. She needed Eugene to be in his fittest condition for tomorrow's events. He must be fixed. Wait, there was still space in that piece of paper she tore apart from the enchanted journal that she used in _The Black Swan_. She opened it. She had used one whole side in the pub fray and she had one side left. She also still had the pen Eugene lent her.

"Don't freak out, OK?" She said as she prepared another incantation to be written.

"Huh?" Eugene grunted.

"The last piece. Please make this work," Rapunzel said and muttered the incantation she was writing.

_Heal what has been hurt_

_Change the fate's design_

_Save what has been lost_

_Bring back what once was fine_

_What was once fine._

Eugene was going to scoff but he felt something electric in the air. The lights flickered on and off for a second and a fierce outburst of wind entered from the window. Then, he felt it. His wounds not causing him pain anymore . Actually, he felt his wound CLOSED. He touched his head and felt that the broken skin on his head was completely healed. He ran to the bathroom to check himself. Rapunzel followed him.

"What?" He was about to scream like a girl in front of the mirror.

"Don't scream. Don't freak out," Rapunzel implored.

"Who's freaking out? " Eugene gasped. " I'm not freaking out," and he cleared his throat.

"Who are you? What are you?"

"I have this curse. And for that Mother had forbidden me to go outside, and be with the rest of society because I've done some serious damage to buildings and people."

"So, you've never been outside of your mother's apartment?"

"Not till the day I met you in the theme park."

"That explains a lot," Eugene mused darkly.

"But you've also healed me, saved my life, even. Many times. How can that be a curse?"

"I don't know. But she's convinced that my power is not easy to be controlled. That's why she's got me this enchanted book and an enchanted pen so only the good things I write will become true. She's afraid if I could just write my words everywhere and every time I want disaster will strike. People will fear me and shun me."

"Wow. Your mother is a piece of work."

"Don't say that about my mother."

"I'm sorry but that's what I think."

"And what is it with your jokes about my hair? Why is it that every time you see something sad, strange or funny you'll crack some lame jokes about it?"

"I'm sorry. I don't know, OK? It's like I want to protect myself from something. The sad, the strange and the funny."

"It's a defence mechanism."

"Yeah, that's it. A defence mechanism," Eugene blinked to get himself psycho-analysed.

"And no more cancer jokes after this. Just because my mother decided that I should have my hair cut this way doesn't mean you can throw cancer jokes at me all the time. Because it is absolutely not funny. The chance of you and I dying of cancer is bigger than any threat of us dying of any other cause, like gunshot wounds, or stab wounds or auto accident," Rapunzel lectured.

"Yes, I know. I'm sorry. Hey, you know a lot for a girl who's never watch TV, read only three books her whole life and never been to school."

"It's not how much you read. It's what you read. And people take chemotherapy in an ONCOLOGY WARD and they can take it as outpatients, as long as they are able to make the trip."

"Yeah. Sorry again."

"And there is no Stage six cancer. It ends at Stage 4."

"I know. "

"Cancer is totally not fun, or funny."

"I know. I've – I've got a friend. Who got sick while we were kids."

"What happened to your friend?"

"He kept disappearing somewhere. Then he began losing his hair because of his treatment. That scared me to death. And then, he was gone. When I saw you, you somehow took me back there."

"I'm sorry."

"It's OK. Hey, like you said - every body's gotta die sometime, even though you don't want it to happen and no matter how hard you struggle against it."

"Hmm," Rapunzel nodded.

"But why did you say you're dying if you are not joking about it?" Flynn asked.

"I'm dying, Eugene. Dying to be free of this curse. Dying to finally live. And tomorrow is my eighteen birthday. Tomorrow is my last day of seeing this world before Mother takes me and keep me away from wrecking the world again."

"That sucks."

"Well, what has to be done, must be done. So, this Medieval Weekend thing is the highlight of my life."

"I understand."

"Eugene?"

"Hm?"

"Please don't call me' Baldie' anymore."

"That won't be fun but since you asked me, I'll stop calling you that."

"You've got two names and I will call you what you want. And I've got only one. So, what is it going to be? Flynn or Eugene?"

"It's up to you, Rapunzel."

"I like "Eugene Fitzherbert" _much_ better than "Flynn Rider". It's a handsome, old name."

"Well, then, you would be the first...but thank you."

"But why 'Flynn Rider' in the first place?"

Eugene took a deep breath and decided that it was not going to do him any harm as she had already had so much power over him, telling him what's right and what's wrong, telling him stuff from deep inside her warped life. He noticed that she had scooted closer to him, waiting for him to tell his story.

"There was this book, _The Tales of Flynnigan Rider, _that I read growing up in the orphanage. Swashbuckling rogue, richest man alive. Not bad with the ladies, nothing to brag about, of course," Eugene let it fly, revisiting one of the most enlightening influences of his life.

Rapunzel could only laugh, guessing how important the stories were for him.

"Was he wanted by the Mafia too? "

"No. But that's the thing. He had enough money to do whatever he wanted, to go wherever he wanted to go. He didn't have to do anything that he didn't want to do. No one could force Flynnigan to do what he didn't want to do. And for a kid who had been and still forced because of his circumstances, becoming Flynnigan Rider, is the best thing that that kid could be," Eugene sighed.

"I think you are a better person than Flynnigan Rider could ever be, given the circumstances," Rapunzel said.

Flynn smiled absent-mindedly.

"Hopefully. You think so?"

"Yes."

Flynn nodded and felt his stomach rumbled. He guessed Rapunzel must be feeling the same too.

"Hey, I'm going to get something to eat. You stay in here. I'll be back in fifteen minutes."

Rapunzel watched the back of Eugene's head as he headed out the door. She went to the balcony and watched the streets below. She saw people walking. Among the moving figures she saw a familiar shape of a woman wearing a long coat on her jeans and working t-shirt. The shape of her magnificent hair and her regal height set her apart from the crowd but she couldn't miss the slightly hunched back as if she was being defeated at something.

Oh Mother, Rapunzel gushed out in fear and pity.

The figure had such power over her that she began to feel compelled to come to her.


	15. Gothel's Reprise

**Oh dear Readers. Sorry for the late update. I've got tonnes of students' paper to grade even though I'm in the middle of the school holiday. So I've created a system where I reward myself by writing one fic after I graded a class worth of essays. (Err, is that a reward or a torture?)**

**Actually, I'm even wondering why on earth I ventured into this task in the first place! The puzzle only gets tougher and I know there is so much expectation for the upcoming climaxes and resolution. But this is getting too exciting to abandon. So thanks again for sticking with me! Much love.**

**Gothel's Reprise**

She was putting a shot of whiskey into her black coffee in a crowded diner when a blink-and-you-will-miss-it scene on the TV screen flashed before her eyes. The local TV station was doing this-just-in news about a shoot-out between the police and the Mafia in an establishment called _The Black Swan. _

"This amateur video clip showed a part of the shootout," the TV announcer said, "it seemed that the whole fray was the consequence of the police vicious crackdown on the Mafia. But the Mafia itself was looking for someone in the first place."

"I don't know for sure. But he was here with a freaky-looking girl and they both were gone in the fire," a traumatised patron of _The Black Swan_ said into the camera.

What Gothel saw was many people, backing out into somewhere in the shaky video. But she saw Rapunzel and she knew without a doubt it was her. Who could miss her gloriously strange hairless head as she was pulled away by a young man, away from the camera, all the while gunfire and smoke bombs were released.

She was so lonely because of the life she had decided to live. Gothel had a secret so big that she could not share her life with anyone. How could she share a life of crime that never ended? But she shared it with one person who benefited from the knowledge that such power could exist in a child. The shared knowledge seemed to benefit her friend so much so that he was willing to help her with the most minimum of cost. This friend claimed that he had friends on the other side and so far, his counsel had helped her navigate the rough terrains of keeping a child she kidnapped and grapple with the child's unpredictable powers. Gothel had his number on speed dial.

"Facilier!"

"Gothel," the voice at the other end was heavy with anticipation.

"I have received the appendage of your daughter and I have very bad news. From your daughter's hair and the energy connected to its owner, I have gaged that she has escaped from your keeping."

"Yes. And she's not alone."

"I must tell you that your daughter's powers are morphing in many unpredictable directions."

"Yes, yes. I've known about it just recently. Tell me how me how to find her."

"Gothel, in all circumstances you must remind her that she is powerless without the tools I have given you. When situation presses you will have to tell her that even the slightest of bad thoughts from her will cause the death of people close to her if she decided to let her powers unbridled by the enchanted tools," Facilier spoke carefully, as if he wanted her to remember his every word.

"Tell me where to find her, Facilier! Or else I won't be able to tell what her what you wanted her to know!"

"You must bring her to me after all of these are over. There is much to discuss about your future and hers together. And I can help you to control her, to make her existence beneficial to you till the end of her days."

"I will, Facilier. Tell me where I can find her!"

"She's not in a good place. Where the manholes are open and rats crawl up as they please. Lots of side street hawkers, but not far from that hateful place where the gleaming towers stand tall."

"The tenement," Gothel gasped_. That must be the place where the criminal had brought her. Why else would she be in the tenement but because of him?_

"Remember to bring her to me so I can help you learn how to control her new powers. She has so much potential and YOU don't want to let it go to waste."

"Yes. But I've got to get to her first."

"If you need help to get her back into your custody, in case there are some outside forces keeping her away from you, I've texted a number that you can call. Free of charge, these people are on my beck and call."

"Thank you."

The phone bleeped of an incoming text message but Gothel did not open it. She had a more pressing matter on her mind right now. She had to find Rapunzel and ask her to return home voluntarily. She could use knives and guns, but Rapunzel was out in the open with people around her. She had to be civil.

Gothel drove to the tenement and finally parked her van in a rare lamp-lighted place in the area. She walked around the blocks looking up to the faint windows, mingling with the miserable, defeated people. Until she found what she was looking for. Her Rapunzel, standing on one the balconies of rotting painted metal structures. Her good luck charm, whose undivided attention toward her very own self had been torn apart because of the girl's sudden attachment to a newly-met young man by the name of Flynnigan Rider. But the bond of the years together between 'mother and child' could not be simply torn asunder. One look from both their sets of eyes, Rapunzel was pulled to her like a moth to a flame.

"Mother, how did you find me?" Rapunzel said, smiling nervously and guiltily once they were standing just a few inches apart. The girl's eyes were not shining even though her face looked more open and happier. Gothel noticed the dark green new clothes with the hoodie which fell loosely on her small frame_. It must be his clothes! How irksome. Such display of intimacy. Sharing of clothing items. What will they share next? She had already gave him a taste of her beautiful curse. What would she give him next?_

"I just listened to the sound of complete and utter betrayal and followed that," Gothel laughed bitterly, holding out her arms. Rapunzel fell into them like a statue.

"Oh Mother, I'm sorry. But I had to do this."

"We're going home Rapunzel," Gothel said as she glanced furtively around.

If the boy showed up, she would definitely kill him. But there were so many people around. Only madness could let her to that.

"No. Mother, I have been on this incredible adventure and I've met someone. I think I like him. And he doesn't hate me, fear me or shun me," the girl said that with so much hope in her eyes that made hatred fester even thicker in Gothel's heart.

"The boy wanted by the police and the mafia? Oh, I'm so proud. We're going home, Rapunzel!" Gothel said and pulled Rapunzel's hand. But the girl snatched it away.

"No!"

"Oh. So it shall be. Rapunzel's so mature now. Rapunzel knows everything."

"Oh Mother."

"I'm sure the boy is being nice to you because you have healed him and helped him out of some tight spots. And all for what? For a day during Medieval Weekend? What will you do for him next? He will use you to his whims as soon as you run back into his arms, as soon as he sussed you out. I bet he's even thinking about it at this very moment."

"Mother, I don't have the enchanted book and pen. I don't have the witchery that you thought I could do. I'm nothing now."

"And you will see that he'll leave you as soon as he knows that you have nothing."

"Then you have nothing to worry about, Mother. I'm worthless to the world when I'm not destroying it. Let me just have tomorrow and I will return to you," Rapunzel sighed.

If it wasn't for the boy who was waiting for her return, Gothel would have sympathised with Rapunzel's existential plight. And Gothel was waiting for Rapunzel to confess. Gothel was waiting Rapunzel to tell her about the manuscript, but the girl just kept quiet. That made her even more convinced that the girl was forming a mind of her own. But she had the upper hand now. If she told Rapunzel about she having the manuscript, who knew what Rapunzel and the boy would plan to do. Instead, this way, she could wait at the Tower when Rapunzel and the boy arrive to collect the manuscript. They would find it gone and there she would strike.

"Mother, I will come back to you, after Medieval Weekend."

"Mark my words, Rapunzel. You will regret that you ever met this boy and left home. And when that happens, I won't be the one who says 'I told you so,"

"Good bye, Mother. I'll see you Sunday morning," Rapunzel sighed and retreated from the place they were standing, with no kiss or love for her. Defeated, but not surrendering, Gothel plodded back to her van. Once she got into the van, she screamed and screamed behind the locked glass. After she got hold of herself, she checked the text from Facilier.

Pollock and Horace Stabbingtons. 898-KIDNAP. Free service.

Gothel Bathory smiled.


	16. The Morning After

**Author's Note:**

**Romance and Musicals: I understand. It is hard to write – rules of magic, limitations of power, witchery. Hopefully you will wait it out and have STRONG suspension of disbelief. And Facilier. Of course. He's just meant to be in a supernatural story, even though it's going to be anachronistic. Again, suspension of disbelief is required.**

**PampleMousse07: Because this is a tribute to 'Tangled', it is going to detailed and slow-moving. Another 10 chapters, maybe. Can you take 10 more chapters? Say YAY, please!**

**Naara: 2 classes down. 2 more to go!**

**An Unknown Foreign Beauty: Keep yours going, baby!**

**So, first time I'm saying this. 'Tangled' is not mine. Doing this because I love it. Thought 'Beastly' could end my 'Tangled' wanting. But NO! 'Tangled' still rules! It takes courage to write the climax 'Tangled' has.**

**Get ready for some FLUFF, people!**

**The Morning After**

The first few moments of waking up were always the same. He never seemed to remember where he was. Maybe that's because he never felt he belonged anywhere. But when he saw the empty boxes of chicken noodles and bones of chicken wings on the low table, he knew. He had slept on the rug on the floor. But why? Had he fallen asleep there on purpose? If so, what was the reason when his own comfortable bed was waiting in his bedroom? And then he turned onto his back and saw her face facing his.

Rapunzel.

The girl he met in the Tower. The girl who healed his injuries when he crashed into a car while running away scared shit from a patrol car. The girl who healed his torn and bleeding scalp. Everything came back to him, especially the very reason she was sleeping on his sofa. He didn't feel too annoyed that she had held the _Rachel _manuscript hostage. She was desperate. And having actually MET her mother, Eugene understood her situation. However, Eugene had reminded himself not to say anything about Mother.

Oh momma! Did he fall asleep on the floor because they had been talking through the night till they both lost consciousness? No. He saw that she had a blanket on, HIS blanket. And that only meant one thing. HE had TUCKED her in. She had fallen asleep first. And then he slept with her. In the living room. What was the world coming to? The injury to the head had really done him in.

He remembered how she really liked the noodles and the chicken wings and the heavily spiced up large celery stalks. He KNEW his selection was something she would like, because he had put a lot of thought into it. He knew her mother wasn't the kind who ordered Chinese take outs. Rapunzel herself must have cooked her own meals. Potatoes, eggs, frozen foods, canned stuff. And the taste of Chinese food, of course, was too exciting to be safe for a girl kept inside the apartment. What if she wanted more after the first taste and her mother had to find her recipe books and search the Chinatown for those crazy spices? That would be a domestic disaster.

When he got up to the flat last night with the take outs, she had looked spooked, while he was blabbing about what more magic she could do. And she had replied in a dejected tone that her magic only worked when she use the proper instruments. And the instruments, naturally, were kept by her mother. He asked her what was wrong, and she said that she was only hungry. Ditto.

They didn't talk about her magic or witchery anymore because it seemed to upset her greatly. Instead, they talked about food. He was describing to her how they made the Chinese take away and it was lucky for him that he worked in an eatery specialising in Chinese.

And she loved Chinese so much. But he'll take her for Mexican later today, all within budget of course.

Eugene tidied up the mess on the low table and headed for the shower. After a quick one, he walked across the room with the towel wrapped around his waist.

"Good morning!"

"Gah!"

So used to his aloneness, Eugene was totally spooked by the harmless morning wish.

"Sorry I spooked you," Rapunzel wheezed.

"Happy birthday!" Eugene blurted.

"Well, thank you," Rapunzel replied in a kind of embarrassment. Strange, that he felt that way too about his birthday.

"Um, I'm gonna get changed and get you a towel so you can freshen up. Do you want a fresh t-shirt or anything?"

"I've got everything in here," she gestured to her tie-dye bag, "but the towel will be great."

He had been cleaning a little bit of mould in the shower and toilet while he was showering. He didn't want her to think that he was some kind of a slob. He was glad he did what he did with the bathroom. Eugene came back out in a pair of brown khaki pants, white shirt and a brown vest. He handed Rapunzel the towel. 

Rapunzel cleaned up quick for a girl who never had the reason to worry about time. She took half an hour in the shower and Eugene spent the time wracking his brain about how to make the Medieval Weekend a blast. First, he would take her to the University's Market Square. He would get her a plaque which has the wordings 'University of Corona's Medieval Weekend Autumn 2011'. It was going to be a cheap souvenir but that would mean a lot to her. One day, she would look back at the plaque on her dresser in her apartment and think back of the wonderful day she had one fall 2011. He, despite all his shortcomings, would make somebody's life more meaningful. In the middle of the square, there would be some folks, mostly oldish college lecturers playing some old Celtic music and let's see if she enjoyed that.

Then, maybe he would just take her to the library so she could see some crucial materials like the world atlas maybe, and a snatch of Shakespeare here and there, because her mother reminded him of Lady Macbeth – 'Out, out, damn boy!' And some Romeo & Juliet if she cared for it, 'What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet'. Who cared if it was Flynn or Eugene? But she made her choice – it was Eugene who won out. However it went, he was still who he was, with flaws and well, more flaws. If good looks could make up for flaws, he would be perfect. And his favourite, 'When he shall die, take him and cut him out in little stars, and he will make the face of heaven so fine that all the world will be in love with night, and pay no worship to the garish sun'. Wait. What? Why? He loved that quote so much. Of how somebody would love him for his flaws and his beauty that she would put him in the sky as stars. But that's just mindless dreaming. Or because she reminded him of Ophelia, a sane and happy version of Ophelia. 'O, woe is me. To have seen what I have (not) seen, see what I see (not)!'

Then, he would take her to the Arts building and see some modern paintings and the framed prints of famous ones.

"I'm ready!" Rapunzel appeared from the bathroom. She was in yesterday's jeans and but with a new black blouse. It was nothing special and she wasn't expecting anything from him.

"Wait! You can't go to Medieval Weekend like this," Eugene gasped.

"I know I'm not much to look at. I'm not Elizabeth Siddal."

"Elizabeth who?"

"The Artist's Manual. A famous pre-Raphaelite model."

He could now guess that she is a fan of the Pre-Raphaelite era. He knew a section in the Arts Building with the prints she would love to see. Above all, he knew that for everyone else, it was just a university. But for her, it was the whole world.

"Oh! No, that's not what I meant. I mean, you're perfect the way you are," Eugene almost slapped his own face that it came so straightforward. But he took courage and went on.

" You just need to dress up Medieval! Or at least Rennaisance. Everyone's who's out there to enjoy Medieval Weekend will be dressing up."

"Do you have anything I can wear?"

"Pfft. No. What do you think I am? Keeping dresses in my little flat."

"I don't know-"

"Come on, let's go. I might know where I can get you something oldishly lady-like."

"What are you going to do?"

"I can't believe that I'm actually saying this, but I'm taking you shopping for clothes."

"Huh?"

"This is the part where you say 'YAY!"

"YAY?" Rapunzel lifted an eyebrow.

"YAY!" Eugene yelled dramatically.

"YAY!"


	17. Kingdom's Gate

**Author's Note: I've got Naara saying YAY! PampleMousse70 thoroughly excited to do some shopping. And An Unknown Foreign Beauty's knack for details to settle. Blink and you will miss them.**

**Kingdom's Gate**

Rapunzel was not ignorant about the workings of the human body. Mother's book selection had given her more than enough information of how the world goes round. Neither was Rapunzel ignorant of how the body of the male kind looked like. She had studied it with detached intimacy, as an admirer of form rather than substance.

But when she looked at him, with only the towel hanging on the tip of his pelvic girdle, she finally was able to connect the form with the essence of the person carrying the shell. That structure of beauty that she had sketched and interpreted in various mediums finally belonged to somebody. She was finally able to connect beauty of form to tone of voice, movement and gestures, nuance of expressions; and it belonged to a person she had spoken to in earnestness, not in fear or loathing or dependency. And that person is Eugene Fitzherbert, the only person who would have ever become her friend in her whole life.

And the hours of their strange companionship were numbered.

Rapunzel felt her body turned strangely warm when she saw him. And the image of him stayed in her mind while she was alone again in the bathroom. His carefully chiselled face, perfectly formed nose and the tuft of curious hair on his chin haunted her and she feared that their images would not go away until she put them down on paper or canvas, which was not a challenge for an accomplished artist because it was always easier to capture perfection than deformity, wrinkles and dissymmetry. He shattered the illusion when he with his confusing words and sentences made a comment about her appearance. But that was probably her own fault, because of the way she had been always spoken to by Mother.

She was not sure how was she to respond when he asked her to go 'shopping for clothes'. Mother always said that shopping for groceries was 'ABSOLUTELY EXHAUSTING'. But the way Eugene said it, with his excited yelling and overdramatic gestures; it seemed that it was the best thing that could ever happen to a girl.

"How much farther are we from Corona?"

They were walking in the quiet morning of a Saturday where everyone slept in and shops closed up, except for a few industrious outlets which tried to win the customers by lack of competition.

"Not much. You know it when you see it. Oh look, we're here."

They were standing in front of a single storey detached building at a street junction.

"Salvation Army Second Hand Store'' Rapunzel read the sign. Eugene laughed sheepishly at her.

"Not exactly where you can find yourself a Vera Wang, but in there be treasures, if you look close enough."

"I'm all for it," Rapunzel smiled.

The second store was large. It was divided into sections for clothes and shoes, books and home appliances. Rapunzel was immediately attracted to the books section. But Eugene pulled her hand to the clothes section.

"You haven't even read the book I gave you, _The, The_ – I can't remember the title."

"_The Charming Bandit_."

"Right."

"I will read it and I do appreciate you getting me that, Eugene."

"I need you to FOCUS on OUR task to make you ready for Medieval Weekend," Eugene begged.

"I'm sorry, okay. It's just -"

An elderly lady, again, to Eugene's despair came to their aid. And it seemed to crush him more when he knew the elderly woman.

"Miss Walker! Hi, I didn't know that you work here."

Rapunzel became excited. This was the person who spoke to her on the phone. Her first phone call ever.

"Oh, I just worked here two days ago. Something to fill my time. And it isn't exactly bone-breaking, like at the orphanage."

"Ahah,"

"But you're a sweetheart, Eugene. Then and now, taking your girlfriend shopping for clothes, and feeling more excited about it than she does," she said.

"Hi, Miss Walker," Rapunzel gave a small wave to the elderly woman with her white hair wrapped in a bun on top of her head.

"This must be Rapunzel," said the woman with a happy gleam in her eyes.

"It's her birthday today," Eugene gave in, scratching his head in discomfort.

"Well, happy birthday dear," Miss Walker said, giving Rapunzel a surprise hug. The woman smelled of talcum powder.

"Thank you very much, ma'am."

"How can I help you kids? I know this place isn't much of a choice," Miss Walker winked at Eugene, "but it's the thought that counts."

"Rapunzel's going to Medieval Weekend. A dress which looks to be in fashion three or four hundred years ago would be nice."

"Let's see what we've got."

Miss Walker brought them to a section of clothes hanging on the wall. Rapunzel saw a few black dresses and a flowing red one. She had enough with anything black and she was attracted to the deep dark red. The three of them look at it, each deep in thought. The deep dark dress looked magnificently fierce, but it was meant for someone taller, with larger hips and body.

The neckline of the dress was made by intricate embroidery of loopy Ss, turning into circles. The background trim was black. The sleeves were edged in a pipeline of gold. The dress was embossed with a repeating pattern of flowerlike starbursts and diagonals. It had a belt with a solid round buckle, with the belt-sash looped through it.

It looked definitely medieval, in sort of very serious and very old way. Rapunzel had seen it in a painting before, _Mariana_ by Sir John Everett Milais. It was dark, magnificent blue as this was magnificently deep red.

"Looks like something your mother would wear," Eugene blurted uncomfortably.

"How nice. You even have met Rapunzel's mother," Miss Walker commented.

"Err, yes, Miss Walker," Flynn responded in a wheezy voice.

"I agree with what Eugene said. That dress is not for you, Rapunzel. You need something younger, more vibrant. I will show you something that both of you might like."

The lady bent over among the many folded clothing items wrapped in plastic under the ones on display. She took one with the colour of lavender. She carefully unwrapped the plastic. The dress, made up of silk fell smoothly when it was held up.

The dress had a neckline made of two curves over the bust line which dropped and met at a point in the middle of the bust area, and had puff sleeves with pink parallel rows of ribbon stitched over the top. The lacing was done with pink ribbon, and there were about eleven pairs of eyelets used to thread the lacing through. The fabric on the bodice was a heavily brocaded purple fabric with very fine pink vines interwoven with the outline of pink flowers. All the edges were edged with a thin pink ribbon, and while the neckline was bordered with a sheer white lace trim, the bottom edge of the bodice was edged with pink lace trim.

The skirt of the dress was quite simple shape wise, but had elaborate embroidery patterns. The skirt itself was a basic high-waisted half-circle skirt that comes down to mid-calf. The fabric used for the front panel is heavily embellished with floral embroidery with a slight metallic sheen.

"I think it will be perfect for you," Flynn said quietly.

"Will you let her try it?" Miss Walker asked, smiling. Eugene nodded.

"Step this way, my dear girl."

While Rapunzel changed into the dress, Eugene was checking things out in the store.

"Aren't you getting something for yourself too?" Miss Walker asked.

"Yes. This," Eugene held up a mask that covered half of the wearer's face. It was velvety black with gold trimmings.

"That looks good."

"I'm ready."

Rapunzel stepped out of the booth and stood there. Eugene turned around and seemed to catch his breath.

"Oh, a little cleavage these days is not something you should fear," Miss Walker said, hitting Eugene on his back.

"What, no – "

"She looks amazing."

"Yes, she does."

"Except for the trainers," Miss Walker commented, pointing at Rapunzel's chunky running shoes.

"Do you have anything comfortable for walking, like a ballerina's shoes, in pink or light purple?"

"We do have some second-hand flats. Size?"

"Six? Five?" Eugene guessed.

"Oh, you're in luck."

Miss Walker procured a pair of pink flats and Rapunzel tried them. It was a perfect fit.

"It's going to be cold. Do you arm stockings? Pink?" Eugene brainstormed.

"We have loads of arm stockings too," Miss Walker informed.

"And you will need a woollen scarf," Eugene said to Rapunzel.

"Oh Eugene, you mustn't critique a lady's sense of fashion," Miss Walker said, giving Eugene the evil eye.

"That's not what I meant. It's cold outside now. Tonight will be even colder."

"Purple," Miss Walker suggested and procured one woollen scarf almost immediately.

"That's perfect."

"I'll give you a fifty percent discount. It's your girlfriend's birthday and it's Medieval Weekend too! Thirty dollars. The mask we'll throw in for free."

"Thank you, Miss Walker," said Eugene as he paid for the items. The cashier machine dinged and clanked.

"Enjoy yourself."

"I'll see you on Sunday."

"Oh, don't worry about me, Eugene."

"Come on, let me carry all that load," Eugene offered as he watched Rapunzel struggling with the bundle of her chunky trainers, jeans and blouse, and 'My Charming Bandit' in her bag. Seconds later, he was carrying all of Rapunzel's gear.

"Here's your pen," she said, poking a pen into his chest.

"Oh."

Eugene slid the pen into his vest breast pocket.

"Thank you, Eugene. For everything. You're very sweet."

"Don't thank me yet. The night's not over. But, you're welcome."

Outside the Salvation Army Second Hand store, Eugene looped the purple scarf over Rapunzel's head and looped it twice over her shoulders.

"Corona, here she comes," Eugene said.

As the two approached University ground, the road widened and cleared, a different kind of air seemed to flow. They were facing a bridge that was built across the Water of Leith. The University was situated on top of a low hill. They could see gleaming towers in the sunlight of early fall.

"Welcome to Corona, Princess of Outcasts," Eugene said, deep in thought.


	18. Corona

**Author's Note: **Gratefully I'm celebrating my 50th review! I know this story is sometimes tedious and well-worn out but yeah, we choose stories we read for different reasons. I've a bunch of loyal readers I'd love to thank. You know who you are! And other readers who put my story on alert and favourite.

**Romance and Musical: **I can't put too much of Flynn hotness here or else the rating will go to M! Many readers love 'Twilight' at some points of their lives. I read to know what's on my students' minds and I got hooked. But not too hooked like 'Tangled' that I'm compelled to write fics for it. Yay, I'm not too old for 'Tangled'.

**PampleMousse07: **The dresses! Probably Gothel's gonna go there and buy it for Medieval Weekend. It was intended as a tribute, though.

**An Unknown Foreign Beauty: **I know! The details are killing me as we speak. Sometimes I can't remember which I have written and haven't.

**Naara: **Miss Walker – she's too perfect. But she's the only one Eugene's got. Before PunZ of course. Our hero deserves some love!

_Dedication: This chapter is dedicated to all the people who ever had an alma mater they belong to or will have their own one day. Mine is the University of Otago, New Zealand. During these turbulent times in the Pacific Fire Rim, my thoughts are with you._

So, enough chat. Let's get back to the story.

**Corona**

The stone bridge crossing the Water of Leith was wide. Rapunzel stopped and leaned forward on the bridge's wall and stared at the water. It was clean and clear, unlike what she saw from her apartment window, for the reason it was too far to see the water. From her limited point of view the sight of the floating lanterns were just like little stars. She never knew what they were exactly. They could be reflections of street lights for all it matters. But tonight, she was going to see it, see how it was done. Then she ran along the bridge, and passing her were people, students, teachers and visitors, dressed in strange costumes. Based on her knowledge from paintings of the past era, the people she met were dressed up as farmers, witches, druids, pirates, princesses, priests, the common people, kings. She looked at Eugene and appreciated his lean form.

"What are you dressing up as, Eugene?"

"A heartbreaker," he answered glibly. Rapunzel snorted.

"What? You don't buy it? Me and my superhuman good looks?"

"I do not know how you live with yourself," Rapunzel laughed.

"One day at a time, Punzie. One day at a time."

They passed the bridge and continued their walk on a generously wide cobblestone path that was laid out on green field of hilly terrain. Up ahead of them, a large brown building made of old bricks with a tall clock tower rising above it stood proudly. It was flanked by tall trees with falling leaves and behind it the blue sky.

"That is the Registry Building. The oldest building in the University," Eugene introduced to her the prominent landmark.

"It's beautiful."

Around the building was large area of stone floored ground, where people had set up stalls selling food and knick knacks for the Medieval Weekend.

"This is what they call the 'Market Square'. But normally, this is just a place for students to lounge around during the summer, sunbathing, while waiting for their classes to start. They call it 'The Lawn', this whole large grassy plain and the stone ground," Eugene explained.

"Sitting around waiting for class," Rapunzel said dreamily, "reading, sketching, lying on the grass, eating sandwiches, drinking tea. I wish I could do that."

"Sorry to be a party-pooper, Rapunzel. But unless your father is the Vice-Chancellor or something, it's quite impossible. I mean, the academia is a long road of getting your credibility as a learner printed out on pieces of paper since you were a small kid. But I know you have the faculty to do it. You're smarter than anyone I've ever met. It's just you have to go through this major orientation programme if you ever get enrolled in here."

"Oh Eugene. You don't have to feel sorry for me. I know I am nowhere near worthy of this place. But a girl got to dream, right?"

"And a boy too. And right now I'm dreaming of breakfast."

"That'll be good."

"Tea or coffee?"

"Tea."

"Just as I've guessed. Wait here."

Eugene said as he gestured to a shady tree, right looking to the River Leith. Rapunzel sat on the grass, feeling the wind on her face and the grass tickling her feet. She took it in, the sight, the smell, the sound. _Damn the curse_. The world is too beautiful to be marred by her abomination of ability. And for once, she had felt free that Mother had taken it away from her. But sooner or later, she had to face the demon in her. As beautiful as her adventure was, she knew she had to return to Mother and live like she had always lived.

Eugene came back with a basketful of bread and cheese, some small spread of tuna and marmalade and two cups of hot drinks.

"Tea for you. And coffee for me," he said.

"Mother says that coffee is too strong for me. It can get me too excited," Rapunzel explained as she sipped her tea.

"Coffee is for the sufferers. Tea is for the watchers."

"You're a sufferer. I'm sorry I make you suffer."

"Just reminding you of our deal."

"I have promised you and I will never break that promise, Eugene."

"Glad to hear that."

They had finished everything when music started to play. Feeling energised now, Rapunzel got up and felt something in her stir.

"You never heard that kind of music before?" Eugene said, lifting an eyebrow.

"Mother had an old guitar and I tried playing it, but it's very hard when you have no music to tune to in your head. This sounds so beautiful."

Rapunzel ran to the Market Square and saw a quartet of men playing some musical instruments. People had begun to crowd the stalls. Some were looking for food, some looking for souvenirs. Eugene followed her. She turned to him.

"This is amazing. These people are playing with their eyes closed!"

Rapunzel closed her eyes and swayed her hips to the lilting melody. She spread her arms and started moving in a circle. Her spontaneity attracted a few people. Students high on euphoria, or probably some other substances, saw a kindred spirit and started joining her. One student in dreadlocks and grey wizard get-up, complete with a wooden staff nudged Eugene in the side.

"Dude, you're just gonna leave your girl dancing there alone?"

"So?"

"That is so unsporting-like," the 'wizard' said and pushed him into the circle of mad ravers.

A buxom almost middle-aged lady, probably a faculty lecturer, took his arms and he was officially a member in the madness started by Rapunzel. Rapunzel saw him joining the dance and she smiled gratefully, as if he had saved her life. Eugene smiled back sheepishly and rose to the occasion heroically, changing partners as he went round and round after her. The music flowed to its crescendo and he saw her face in an unspeakable ecstasy that made him felt left out of her brief but intense happiness. She was dancing with her eyes closed. Suddenly he had this urge to catch her in his arms before she could fall because of dizziness, but he kept transferred from one woman's arms to another like he was some sort happiness-inducing instrument.

The music reached its final few bars and he freed himself from all attachments and they met in the middle of the circle as if thrown by destiny, into each other's arms, chest heaving and breathing heavy. Few seconds passed as Eugene looked into her brilliantly green eyes and her into his. They let go at the same time as they realized that people were whistling and cheering at them.

"Wow! I never thought that you had it in you."

"That was amazing! I've been saying that a lot, haven't I?" Rapunzel gasped.

"Yeah. But that was amazing," Eugene mused, "I never thought I would ever dance during Medieval Weekend anywhere, even if my life depended on it."

"There's a first for everything," Rapunzel said, thinking more about herself than about Eugene, even though he had been sarcastically amazing. Sarcastic, but still amazing.

"Let's look at the stalls," Eugene said.

They stopped at one selling souvenirs. Eugene bought her a plaque, one that could be put on a table with her family/Mother photo frames. It had the words 'University of Corona Medieval Weekend 2011' and a photo of the Registry building clock tower printed on it. Behind the plaque was a photo of the Vice Chancellor's missing baby girl in computer generated age progression. _All proceeds will go to the fund in raising awareness for the cases of missing children. The Corona Floating Lights Project, t_he plaque said.

"Something for you to remember today by."

"You don't have to, but thank you."

"It's for a good cause."

"How do they know she looks like this now?"

"They have this programme in a computer where it uses the facial features of a baby and then the computer will try make the baby's face change according to age."

"That is so clever."

"Let's see today's programme," Eugene suggested and they went to the nearest bulletin board. There was a large poster of _The Corona Floating Lights Project_ where the Vice Chancellor's missing daughter's face was on display again.

"If you have brown hair like she does, you'd look exactly like her," Eugene commented.

"You mean Rachel?"

"Yeah. I mean the eyes, the freckles and that small chin."

"But she's so pretty,"

"Just saying," Eugene shrugged and looked at the day's itinerary.

"But I do have brown hair."

"But that's hard to tell. You could be a blond, or a red head, or platinum white, or pitch black."

"Why would I lie about my hair?" Rapunzel asked incredulously.

Eugene changed the topic since he did not want to discuss his women's hair preference. Because it was kind of private to him.

"Hey, we got the whole day ahead of us before the launch of the floating lights. Let me show you the Corona Library. You went crazy at the Market Square. I bet you'll be institutionalised once you see the library, hahaha! That is a joke, OK?"

"That will be great, Eugene."

"To the Great Corona Library then. And then, to insanity!"

"Oh, you're just being overdramatic."

"Am I?" Eugene smiled devilishly.


	19. Bookworms' Pact or Kingdom Library

**WickedSong**: Thank you for dropping your review. As a dedicated member of the academia, I'd say school comes first ;}

**An Unknown Foreign Beauty**: Sorry it is written deliberately slow for the FLUFF. But come Chapter 22 until 30, you will get no rest and might have to gouge your eyes out. So hold on for a little longer (begging mode)

**The Bookworms' Pact (or Kingdom Library)**

Rapunzel and Eugene stood in front of a sleeping giant of a building made of grey stones. From their vantage point, the building was of insignificant square lay out, which wings and annexes were hidden by trees because of the structure's vastness could not be seen from a single perspective. A door automatically opened and then closed before a second one opened and let them in into the library's foyer. This arrangement of entering and exiting reminded Rapunzel of Mother's apartment doors. The foyer did not have any display of books, so Eugene saved his grand entrance speech for later. Instead, people had set up desks and chairs for a book launch.

And the book in question was _A Memoir of Loss and Hope: Life After Rachel _by Algernon & Anna Kingsley.

Eugene heaved a sigh of relief. So, the manuscript he stole wasn't a work-in-progress thing. The book was already printed and published. And it seemed, the patron of the Stabbingtons, a mafia head figure hadn't had any success all these while in trying to steal the manuscript and cause heartache to the academic royalty during the editing process. That made him feel a little bit better even though that didn't make what he did as guiltless.

There was an advert for a competition whose one of many purposes was to gain the VC some audience during the launch of his memoir. _The Floating Lanterns Project Slogan Competition_. Since he had a writer in the house, Eugene was excited to the toes with the possibility of Rapunzel winning the competition.

"Hey, you might wanna try this."

"What is it?"

"A slogan competition. Complete the following phrase, The _Floating Lanterns symbolise_ ... in 5 words or less. I'm going to buy you the ticket and you're going to write the slogan,' he said and disappeared.

"This is it. Ticket number 50," Eugene showed Rapunzel the ticket.

"So, what are the floating lanterns?" He asked.

"Dreams. Dreams found and dreams lost," Rapunzel said slowly as if she was dreaming.

"That's perfect. Write that down. Your name too."

Rapunzel wrote it down. Rapunzel Bathory.

"Why on earth does the name 'Bathory' seemed familiar?" Rapunzel shrugged at Eugene's question.

Of course, he had written a dissertation about the Countess Elizabeth Bathory for his Mass Comm. Degree. And that dissertation was in his backpack with the manuscript of _Life After Rachel_.

"I'll put it in the box. We'll go out at 7 to wait for the results."

"What do I get if I win?"

"It's a surprise."

They stepped further beyond the foyer and left the book launch site. Eugene could see that Rapunzel was wordlessly quiet.

"'It's not how much you read. It's what you read'. So three-books-a-lifetime girl," Eugene paused for dramatic effect.

"I give you three million books!"

The library began with the front desk which consisted of the loan counter on the left side and the return counter on the right. After that, there were two sets of staircase spiralling up and down to the many levels.

"How many storeys are there in this place?" Rapunzel asked breathlessly.

"Three."

"How big is this place?"

"As big as your mother's apartment block. Excluding the annexes."

"Oh Eugene! Why on earth did you bring me here?" Rapunzel moaned as she ran her fingers over the first tall shelf she came across. Little that she knew that Eugene was stealing glances out of the window as he spied something occurring on the lawn. There were men on horseback carrying large spears trying to knock each other out of their horses, while the crowd cheered like mad. He told her he didn't like Medieval Weekend. What if Rapunzel did inherit her mother's sadistic trait and asked him to get on one of those horses and he had to win the joust for her honour? What if later she'd ask him to be one of the poor young farmers (albeit a cripplingly handsome one) caught in the crossfire of two noblemen's battle for land? No. He'd prefer be her guide in the library.

"It is very important that you see the world atlas."

Eugene pushed Rapunzel to the Maps Section and pulled out a giant atlas. They sat on the carpeted floor and Eugene opened the pages.

"I know parts of the world, Eugene. It's in one of my three books - _How To Survive Anything, Anywhere_. I know how to survive the tropics, the deserts, the polar caps."

"Really? It's not for the world. It's something private. I just want to show you something."

"Something private?"

"My life-long dream."

"What is your life-long dream?"

"On an island that I own, tanned rested and alone, surrounded by enormous piles of monnayy!" Eugene sang a strange ditty to Rapunzel's ears. And he came to a page.

"That is my island," he said, pointing to a small dot of land in the edge of a small peninsular surrounded by a large area of water.

"Sun all year round, white sandy beaches, crystal clear water, tall palm trees and exotic women in sarongs. My dream!"

Rapunzel laughed.

"I do go to the extremes."

"My dream is much simpler. Easier to achieve, unlike yours."

"The floating lanterns? Medieval Weekend?"

"Yes."

"Yet it takes you eighteen years to finally achieve it?"

Rapunzel pursed her lips. Eugene felt his conscience tugging.

"Come," he said as he got up and offered his hand to Rapunzel.

"Where are we going?"

"To the windows."

From the large glass panel of wall, Rapunzel saw bedlam of mock violence on the lawn. Medieval Jousting. She was only amused by it for five minutes.

"Do you want to continue watching or you can watch me perform the final act of the greatest love story ever told?" Eugene asked, lifting his dark eyebrow.

"Greatest love story ever told, without question," Rapunzel answered, pursing her lips.

"Good. Because my minor is the Performing Arts. And I'm always cast as the male lead, obviously," Eugene blabbed as he pulled Rapunzel's hand and walked toward the Literature Section. Once they got there, Eugene pulled two identical copies of a slim edition.

"William Shakespeare's _Romeo and Juliet_."

"I have seen a painting based on one of his works, _Ophelia_."

"Ophelia is from _Hamlet: The Prince of Denmark_. _Romeo and Juliet_ is not necessarily better than _Hamlet_, but it is simpler, with the timeline of a few days, just like our little adventure. And it is a love story, with a female lead, which is very popular with the girls."

"Like 'My Charming Bandit'?"

"Yes, but with action sequence so thrilling, and a male lead that the boys will like too."

"So how does the story go?"

Eugene took a deep breath and began his story, sitting down cross-legged on the carpet.

"Once a upon a time, in a fairly medieval-like time, in a city just like ours, there were two sworn enemies."

"Like the police and the Mafia?"

"Not quite, it's more like, two warring groups of mafias."

"Wow."

"One mafia chief, Capulet had a daughter, Juliet. And the other mafia chief, Montague, had a son. These two scions of sworn enemies grew up till they're about fifteen, the age ripe for love."

"Hmm."

"Juliet's father held a masquerade ball and Romeo gate-crashed the party, wearing a mask!" Eugene whipped the mask from nowhere and put it on his face. Rapunzel laughed.

"They met and they fell in love. It was love at first sight."

"Is that possible? Falling in love at first sight?"

"It is written, then it must be true."

"They kissed," Eugene said as he put his face close to Rapunzel's face and looked deep into her eyes. "And promised to meet again."

"After the ball, Romeo sneaked into the Capulet's courtyard and overheard Juliet on her balcony vowing her love to him in spite of her family's hatred of the Montagues. Romeo made himself known to her and they agreed to be married."

"That is too sudden, Eugene!"

"Rule of drama, Rapunzel. Rule of drama."

"With the help of Friar Laurence, who hoped to reconcile the two families through their children's union, they were secretly married the next day."

"Oh! Their parents must be very angry if they find out! Oh Mother!"

"Err, yes. But this isn't about Mother. The action part is coming," Eugene said and got up. He took a wooden newspaper clamp from one of the shelves and acted out some serious sword play, which thrilled Rapunzel to no end.

"Juliet's cousin Tybalt, totally pissed that Romeo had gate-crashed into the Capulet ball, challenged him to a duel. Romeo, now considering Tybalt his kinsman, refused to fight. Mercutio, Romeo's friend was offended by Tybalt's rudeness, as well as Romeo's 'cowardice'and accepted the duel on Romeo's behalf. Mercutio was fatally wounded when Romeo attempted to break up the fight. Grief-stricken and wracked with guilt, Romeo confronted and killed Tybalt."

"Oh my," Rapunzel gasped.

"Yes, escalation all the way," Eugene got up from his 'dead Tybalt' position and composed himself to continue the story.

"Montague argued that Romeo has justly executed Tybalt for the murder of Mercutio. The Police Chief, exiled Romeo from Verona and declared that if Romeo returned, the police would kill him on sight."

"That is terrible!"

"Romeo secretly spent the night in Juliet's chamber, where they, err, have se - , consummate their marriage. You know what that means," Eugene said while he was blushing and he wanted to believe that it was out of exertion.

"Yes, I know what that means," Rapunzel replied professionally.

"Capulet, misinterpreting Juliet's grief, agreed to marry her to another dude called Paris and threatened to throw her out of the house when she refused to become Paris's bride."

"Thrown out of the house? Imagine the horror!" Rapunzel gasped.

"To you, of course. And when Juliet then plead for the marriage to be delayed, her, ahem, MOTHER rejected her."

"Oh, Eugene. Mine is not that bad."

"Juliet visited Friar Laurence, the kindly priest who helped them get married, for help. And he offered her a drug," Eugene said as he took out the pen from his pocket and uncapped it and thrust it into Rapunzel's face.

"That will put her into a death-like coma for twenty four hours."

"And there is such a drug," Rapunzel nodded knowingly.

"Right. _The Complete First Aid and A-Z of Family Health_. The Friar promised to send a messenger to inform Romeo of the plan, so that he could rejoin her when she awakened. On the night before the wedding, she took the drug and, when discovered apparently dead, she was laid in the family crypt."

"Oh!" Rapunzel was biting her knuckles.

"The messenger, however, did not reach Romeo and, instead, he learnt of Juliet's apparent death from his servant. Heartbroken, Romeo bought poison from an apothecary and went to the Capulet's crypt. He encountered Paris who had come to mourn Juliet privately. Believing Romeo to be a vandal, Paris confronted him and, in the ensuing battle, Romeo killed Paris" Eugene said as he made a stabbing motion upon himself with the pen he was holding. He fell to the floor.

"Still believing Juliet to be dead," Eugene narrated darkly as he uncapped the pen and pretended that the cap was a small vial.

"Romeo drank the poison." Eugene drank the imaginary poison and said as his body trembled, "O true apothecary! Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die," and Eugene lay himself on the floor unmoving.

Juliet was as still as a scarecrow, her eyes round with trepidation.

"Juliet then awakened!" He said and got up almost suddenly, surprising the teary-eyed Rapunzel.

"And, finding Romeo dead, stabbed herself with his dagger," Eugene said and handed the pen to Rapunzel.

"Come on! Do your part, primadona," he said.

"What do I say?" Rapunzel asked. Eugene opened the slim edition and showed her the line before he resumed his dead man position on the floor. Rapunzel read it and took the pen and plunged it into her chest.

"O happy dagger! This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die," she screamed in despair.

Then she fell to Eugene's side, her head next to his torso and his head next to her hips. They laid there for a few moments, breathless, basking in the glory of such a spectacular story.

"Oh good heavens! What is going on?" An elderly library staff stumbled on their little drama and jumped at the sight of them sprawled on the floor. Eugene jumped to his feet.

"I'm sorry. Got carried away with this," he said and showed the book to the staff.

"Romeo and Juliet, of course! Well then. Continue with your studying."

Eugene turned to Rapunzel and found her crying. He touched her shoulders.

"Don't cry. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I thought you'd go insane. Not all sad."

"This many books. Amazing stories. Thousands and thousands of them and I will never get to read them. Ever."

Eugene scratched his goatee.

"I have an idea."

"Huh?"

"I still have another half a year before I get my degree. So, I work just across the street below your apartment. When your mother is already out to work, what if you just wait at your window and when I come out of the eatery for my break, I'll just stand there and shout 'Rapunzel! Let down your rope' or something. And you lower down a really long rope and I'll tie the book and you pull it up. The same goes when you want to return the book."

"Don't you think that will attract too much attention?" Rapunzel asked, seriously considering the idea.

"I don't think people will care. And your mother, I bet she's not an involved community member that people will go out of their way to tell that you're getting books sent to your room via a rope."

"I guess not."

"Anyway, we're not doing anything wrong. And it's not going to go on forever. I'm gonna leave this city after I graduate."

"So, is it a promise? For six months, you're going to send library books to Mother's apartment?"

"Yeah. I've done much more challenging tasks. It's a deal, Rapunzel."

"Promise?"

"I promise."

"So, what happens after that?"

"For me, a new life where I completely sever myself from my past. And you, I don't know. It's your choice, Rapunzel. The future is still unwritten."

"I don't want to think about the future."

"Me, neither. Or the past. Best we stay in the present. Hey, it's already seven o'clock. They're about to announce the winner. Let's get out of here."


	20. The Royal Couple

**Author's Note: **

**Mrs. Naara: **The dagger is happy. But Gothel is definitely not. But does a happy dagger make a happy Gothel? We'll find out.

**Pample Mousse07, WickedSong, An Unknown Foreign Beauty: **Glad you enjoyed the R+J thing. An R+J ending? Wonderfully, none of our beloved 'Tangled' characters is suicidal. There's so much spirit in them! Including Gothel (tsk).

**The Royal Couple**

People were already crowding the foyer where the book launch was supposed to be held. Rapunzel and Eugene took their seats at the edge of the crowd. Eugene had put on his mask, which was not awkward at all because the manner people were dressing up that evening was influenced by the Medieval Weekend mood. There was a hooded figure in a brilliant red dress whose face was completely unseen at a seat at the back. There were wizards, knights, angels and witches. So, a masked man was not peculiar at all.

"Thank you for the 'dagger'," Rapunzel whispered, softly touching Eugene's chest with the pen he lent her.

"Always thought that the pen would come in handy," Eugene responded and put the pen back into his vest pocket.

The Vice Chancellor was still talking to the audience before they would buy the memoir, line up and ask for the couple's autographs.

"Writing _Life After Rachel_ was painful but at the same time healing. I'm grateful that my wife, Anna has been with me all the way. It started as a manuscript which had so many mistakes but I loved that version. Now I can't seem to find it because I haven't been cleaning my room at the Burns Building for so long."

The audience laughed.

"So, now the public will have the less clouded, less traumatised version of _Life After Rachel_," the Vice Chancellor continued sheepishly.

"I guess you have your hand in that, Eugene?" Rapunzel whispered to him.

"Yeah. But he doesn't know it. He doesn't know that it is actually stolen," Eugene said disbelievingly. He could not believe the second chance he had been given. So, the Stabbingtons were caught for what? Jay-walking? Littering? Parking illegally? Smoking in non-smoking zone? Knowing the Stabbingtons, he wouldn't be surprised.

"I'm glad. Maybe there's a way you can turn things around," Rapunzel said with hope written all over her face.

"I wish," Eugene said, the same kind of hope showing in his face. He couldn't believe he was sharing such embarrassing and revealing topic about his nature as a person with this girl he just met yesterday. But she was so accepting and forgiving, without losing her ground on what she thought was right and wrong.

But the Stabbingtons would still want the error-ridden manuscript and their patron would still want it. How on earth was he going to repair that? When he had so much to lose? He still wished he could make it right. Photocopy it, return it, give it to the Stabbingtons, then the Stabbingtons will give it to the Mafia boss who was so bent on ruining the VC's life, out of some long-harboured malice that probably started since they were teenagers. One championing life in the academia and another championing a life of bullying and crime. Two sworn philosophical enemies fighting over the city's sanity. As a kid who had nothing and had to make some difficult choices he had been always been torn between the two. But he knew what he wanted. He just didn't know how to own it permanently.

The woman standing next to the Vice Chancellor whispered something into the man's ears. The VC stopped his speech and made an announcement.

"My lovely wife has just reminded me that it is time to announce the winner of the Floating Lights' Project Slogan Competition."

"Perfect," Eugene said.

"And the winner is ticket number 50 – Rapunzel Bathory!" The Vice Chancellor announced. People clapped and whistled.

"Is Rapunzel Bathory in the audience? Let me read her slogan. 'The Floating Lanterns symbolise dreams lost and dream found'. Beautiful."

"I'm here!"

Rapunzel said and Eugene pushed her from her seat to go to the speakers' desk.

"Congratulations," said the writer Anna Kingsley as she gave Rapunzel a ticket. The woman had long brown hair that she bundled into a tight bun. She was wearing spectacles but everyone could see her bright green eyes.

"Thank you."

"You look very familiar," Anne Kingsley said. Rapunzel could only be surprised.

"I think I've met a Bathory before. Gothel Bathory," the woman continued, deep in thought, as if struggling to remember something. Rapunzel was pleasantly surprised.

"She's my mother," Rapunzel said, smiling. She KNEW Mother has or had a friend.

"I didn't know she had a daughter – how old are you dear?"

"Eighteen."

"That is strange. I met your mother eighteen years ago and she wasn't preg - oh, I'm sorry for prying. By the way, that is a radical thing you did with your hair. Quite liberating, I'd say," she said. Rapunzel smiled awkwardly, unsure how to respond.

"Enjoy yourself tonight," the woman stopped suddenly, blushing. She was apparently ashamed of herself, for asking Rapunzel very private questions that the girl had every right not to answer or would not know how to.

"Thank you, I will. It's a dream come true," Rapunzel said her good bye and returned to Eugene with the prize ticket.

The crowd dispersed. Some went to meet the royal couple of the academia; some went out of the library. Eugene and Rapunzel opted out. It was already dark outside.

"Wow! Rapunzel! Wow!" Eugene squealed euphorically, which looked ridiculous when he was doing it behind a mask.

"I know!" Rapunzel squealed too, sharing his unbridled enthusiasm.

"Wow! Yay!" Eugene squealed some more.

"Wait, why are you so excited, Eugene? What have I won?"

"A boat ride in the Water of Leith as they launch the floating lanterns!" Eugene screeched excitedly. Rapunzel read the ticket. _The Floating Lanterns Boat Ride. Free photos of the ride._

"I thought you don't like Medieval Weekend?"

"I don't like Medieval Weekend. By bringing you into the Library I've made you miss a Jousting Competition and a Battle Recreation Scene. But the boat ride? During my final year? This is awesome!"

Eugene was practically doing a jig. Rapunzel felt like stopping him by sharing a strange story.

"Hey, do you want to know something strange?"

"What is it?"

" The VC's wife knew my mother," Rapunzel told Eugene about the strange conversation she had with the memoir's co-writer Anna Kingsley.

"That is indeed weird."

"And she seemed surprised that I'm eighteen. Her daughter and I are of the same age."

"She's probably reminded of her own daughter when she looked at you. I mean, the VC's wife and your mother could be acquaintances when you were both babies, before she lost her daughter," Eugene replied thoughtfully.

"Yes, maybe."

"Well, we'll just hope that one day they'll gain peace in their hearts."

"It's very sad to think about it, even if it didn't or never happen to our very own."

"But I'd just say that you look NOTHING like your mother."

"Maybe I take after my father."

"Where is he now?"

"I don't know. Mother never speaks about him."

"Mine either. Hahaha! That is a lame joke," Eugene laughed and sighed in the same breath.

"Well, Punzie. At least we have something in common. We both never knew our fathers. And I top you a bit there because I've never known my mother. "

Both of them stayed quiet for a while, until Eugene finally thought of something.

"What a downer of a situation. Come on, let's grab something to eat before we head out to the Water. What do you want? I'm recommending Mexican."


	21. Gothel's Watch

**An Unknown Foreign Beauty**: Argh! How will I include that? It's very hard to do.

**WickedSong:** You're absolutely right. That is Mama Gothel.

Put up your hands if you missed Gothel. No? Augh...

**Gothel's Watch**

Gothel woke up with a splitting headache and she crushed it with a shot of whiskey. Day Two without her happy drug. Day Two of withdrawal from everything and anything, including her good luck charm 'daughter' Rapunzel. She hadn't had anything good written for her two days now and it was no use wondering why her days were escalating into a nightmare in which she was the very demon._ Never take anything before food_, the fools at the pharmacy had reminded her. But who needed food when she had this much wrath? She took another swig of her poison.

She boiled three eggs as she bathed and dresses. She applied fierce red lipstick and black kohl on her eyelids that framed her icy blue grey eyes. She put _Snow White_ foundation on her face and put on _Dark Night_ nail polish. However, she was not dressed for Medieval Weekend. She needed something convincing but cheap for she would wear the get up only once. Where else would she make her pit stop but the Salvation Army Second Hand Store? She cracked the boiled eggs on the dashboard and peeled the shells when the lights were red. Then she devoured the eggs, one by one. _The egg eater_, she grimaced. One by one, till she reached the store.

"Another Medieval Weekend customer!" The elderly staff announced and that made Gothel seething darkly.

"This morning, a couple of kids bought a mask and a nice soft purple dress."

Hearing that piece of information, Gothel suddenly felt like talking.

"Children, are they?"

"No. A young man and a girl of about eighteen. Sweet couple. Though the girl has a strange hairstyle."

"How strange?"

"Completely shaven. Well, kids these days. But the boy didn't seem to mind."

"Of course, he doesn't," Gothel said darkly.

The staff gestured to a dress hanging on the wall.

"I think you'll like this one," she said as she took it and let Gothel hold a brilliantly red, figure hugging dress.

"Resplendent."

"It is, isn't it?"

But it was so attention grabbing, and Gothel was about to do some serious espionage.

"Do you have cloaks?"

"Yes, we do. Even though it will not match the beauty of this dress."

"I want a hooded cloak."

The staff bent over some plastic packagings and got out a bundle of velvety black material.

"There you go."

Gothel spent ten minutes in the changing room. When it was all done, she looked like both gypsy queen and vampire witch. She liked it. The way the work was done at the theme park had killed her every sense of self esteem. And she needed the change. She planned to never go back to the theme park. Once she got her good luck charm back, everything would be normal. No, much better than normal.

"Now, you look like you're ready for Medieval Weekend."

"I am, aren't I?" Gothel replied as she admired her own reflection in a long mirror.

She looked like she was from another world. Soon her mind was fixated on the thought of her 'daughter' already on university ground, giving herself completely to the criminal. She must be there quick. But Gothel had an appointment with the people recommended by Facilier.

When she entered the burger joint where the appointment was arranged, she saw the two and knew the moment she laid eyes on them. Facilier's description was perfect. How else do you describe a man wearing an eye patch and another having his chin split into two?

"What do you want, lady?" The one with the eye patch asked moodily.

"I want you to bring this girl back to me."

Gothel showed a photo of the girl in question on the phone she snapped when Rapunzel had just got her hair shorn.

"Can't miss her," the one with the split chin commented.

"No, you can't. But you boys might have some problems."

"What kind of problems?"

"She is not by herself."

"Who's she with?"

"A criminal by the name of Flynn Rider."

The Stabbingtons choked when they heard the name. The one with the eye patch pretended nonchalance and said, "He's fish bait."

"Well boys, FISH BAIT and my DAUGHTER are at the University for Medieval Weekend."

"We can't go to the University. The place hates us."

"EVERYBODY is going to the University. And there's this dreaded lanterns thing going on."

"OK."

"But we'll take our separate ways. Bring her to me and Facilier will be happy."

Gothel had to endure Jousting and Battle Recreation. When she stepped into the Library's foyer, it was just her instinct that told her to. She came face to face with her self-made nemesis albeit only from a distance. The hooded cloak allowed her to witness the foolery of the mourning couple. They had changed a lot. They were thinner, with a haunted look on their faces. A far cry from the glowing happiness she saw eighteen years ago. And it made her very satisfied. It was worth the limitations she had inflicted upon herself. She watched behind the safety of her camouflage.

And when she saw Rapunzel talking to Anna Kingsley, her pulse quickened and her heart constricted, which to her relief was only a harmless conversation. It was a freak incident that Rapunzel should win the competition. The coincidence made her sick with paranoia. The crowd dispersed and so did Rapunzel and the criminal Flynn Rider. She knew where they were heading next.

She was about to follow the couple when her cellphone rang. She knew who it was.

"Gothel."

It was Facilier.

"Yes."

"My sources tell me that you're not handling the situation well."

"Tonight, Facilier. Tonight."

"Her powers could go beyond your control and you will fail."

"I can't just shoot anybody who is between her and me. She's at the University during the busiest time of the year.

"I'm coming to Corona to help you."

"Oh!" Gothel breathed a sigh of relief. She had felt so alone since this floating lanterns thing crept in and Flynn Rider showed up and sent her life into chaos. She needed somebody. Somebody who knew and understand her terrible plight. And it was not something that just anybody could understand. It took somebody like Facilier to do that.

"You must take care of the book!"

"The book is with me."

"It is a channel of her reality-building energy and there is no other like it on the face of this mortal world. And you only have one to last you a lifetime. You must take good care of it and your precious Rapunzel too."

"Where shall we meet?"

"The Pier."

"Why the Pier? The Pier is a bad place."

"Exactly. That place has so much dark energy. And I am at my strongest there. You must bring her there so I can understand and harness her energy to YOUR advantage, before she discovers powers that you don't want her to know she has."

"When?"

"When the clock strikes twelve or, most importantly, whenever you have the girl with you."

Gothel breathed in sharply as the call ended. The matter became more pressing. _Is it easier to drag a kicking and screaming girl into her van or is it easier if she came with her like a daughter would? A daughter who would loyally be by her mother's side? _

The answer was obvious and there was so much to do so it would happen the way she wanted it to happen.

Knowing that the two were 'safe' under the watch of the Stabbingtons, Gothel left for the Tower.

The place where the two would head to after the launch of the sickening floating lanterns.


	22. The Floating Lights

**Author's Note:**

**Romance and Musical**: Insane is good, hopefully.

**PampleMousse07**: The last chapter is 31, so, counting down slowly.

**An Unknown Foreign Beauty & Naara**: 'Tangled' is nothing without Gothel.

**WickedSong**: I'm going back to teaching on Monday, so it'll be a little slow after that. The DVD might even have come out and I'll still be working on this.

So, before school get to me, I leave you with this.

Disclaimer: I do not own 'Tangled' or the Taylor Swift's song 'The Last Kiss'. I just love them.

**The Floating Lights**

Rapunzel closed her eyes the entire time. Not once did she peek. He made her promise him.

"Rapunzel!"

She heard his voice, deep and reassuring from the edge of the water.

"Yes, Eugene?"

"You can open your eyes now."

And when she did, she saw him standing tall and anticipating in a boat. Not some ordinary poor fisherman's rickety boat, but one that was ornately made, with a tall, curved forward end. Rapunzel had never rode a boat, not even seen a real boat before, but she knew a thing of beauty and excellent craftsmanship when she saw one. Eugene rowed the boat to the edge of the platform where she was standing. He held out his hand to her and she took it.

"Where are we going?"

" Well, best day of your life - I figured you should have a decent seat. And of course, you won it."

People standing close to the edge of the water cheered for her, winner of the Floating Lanterns Project Slogan Competition.

"I wouldn't know the competition existed if it weren't for you. So, thank you."

"You deserve it, you alone. But, you're welcome. There is also a bunch of stuff in the boat. Plush toys and things."

"Plush toys?"

"A green frog and a white horse. I don't get it, but, yeah, they're for you," Eugene handed two plush toys of the said two animals, the size of babies wrapped in plastic to Rapunzel.

"I think they're cute," Rapunzel squealed.

Mother had never given her plush toys. She slept hugging an extra pillow.

"Of course. Girls love them."

"For memory's sake, I'm taking this. And I'm giving you the horse," Rapunzel put the horse plush toy on Eugene's side of the boat.

"Good choice, thanks. I don't really like frogs."

"I think it's a chameleon."

"Nuance."

Eugene rowed until the boat reached the middle of the stream. The part of the River Leith directly in front of the building was at its widest. He wanted her to get the best view of the lanterns once they were released.

"Where would all this water leads to?"

"The Pier."

"What kind of place is it?"

"Not good. The Mafia did a lot of their killings there. The police always find bodies in the Pier. They even say that the place is haunted."

"Do you believe the Pier is haunted?"

"No. Nothing haunts anything but people's thoughts. It's just nobody should go to the Pier, especially at night."

"So, will these lanterns go to the pier?"

"No. They rigged the river. They won't leave University ground. They put a lot thoughts to it. These things with fire. If airborne they were going to cause aviation disasters, damage to crops and buildings. So they took the safest way, float them down the river and they'll fish them out in the morning."

Eugene noticed that Rapunzel was suddenly quiet.

"Hey, you okay?"

"I'm terrified."

"Why?"

"I've been looking out of a window for eighteen years, dreaming about what it might feel like when I see up close how those lights float in the water. I didn't know what they were. And now... what if it's not everything I dreamed it would be? I mean, Medieval Weekend was great. But the time when you told me about Romeo and Juliet was even better..."

"It will be. This one is special. I mean, I'm as excited as you are. Or more," Eugene comforted her. He understood. This had been everything to her.

"And what if it is? What do I do then?"

"Well that's the good part, I guess. You get to go find a new dream."

"And what will that be?" Rapunzel asked herself.

"I don't know. I haven't achieved mine, the private island and the money, I mean," Eugene said. But he knew that was just to protect himself from the truth. His dream had been forever of getting a second chance. After each screw up, he needed a second chance. And another. And another. But he was too embarrassed to come clean with Rapunzel. Because after this, she was going to give him back his Rachel and his screwed up life will continue as usual. Except for the book-sending process that he had promised her. That would be the only right thing he could do.

There were hundreds of people on the river bank. And the number was shown when they lighted their lanterns simultaneously as it was signalled by a singing choir. Pitch black darkness was suddenly interrupted by music and voices of a hundred people. The combination of melodic voices prompted the lighting of the lanterns and their launch into the water. Cameras flashed as Eugene took Rapunzel to her seat. Rapunzel gasped and stood suddenly at the sight of the lanterns' lights seeping from the water's edge to the middle of the river and downstream. Eugene struggled to keep the boat in balance. Who could blame her? It was her life's dream, anyway.

The slow current took the lanterns with melancholic rhythm. The choir voices sang these words which came so clear to their ears.

_All those days, watching from the windows. _

_All those years, outside looking in. _

_All that time, never even knowing just how blind I'd been. _

_Now I'm here, blinking in the starlight. _

_Now I'm here, suddenly I see. _

_Standing here, it's oh, so clear, _

_I'm where I meant to be. _

_And at last, I see the light. _

_And it's like the fog has lifted. _

_And at last, I see the light. _

_And it's like the sky is new. _

_And it's warm and real and bright. _

_And the world has somehow shifted. _

_All at once, everything looks different. _

_Now that I see you. _

"I think the song is meant for me. I mean, that is me," she said softly, tears brimming in her eyes.

_All those days, chasing down a daydream. _

_All those years, living in a blur. _

_All that time, never truly seeing things the way they were. _

_Now she's here, shining in the starlight._

_Now she's here, suddenly I know._

_If she's here, it's crystal clear,_

_I'm where I'm meant to go._

"It is written for all the missing children. Somewhere not knowing they have a place where they really belong," Eugene explained.

"Oh, I'm taking all these too personally," Rapunzel reflected.

"Hey, it's OK. This song gets to me too, every time. I heard it three times before and I could remember the words. I could sing it by heart," Eugene confessed. And he started to sing, softly, in his careless humming way.

_And at last, I see the light._

_And it's like the fog has lifted._

"Come on, primadona, sing with me," he said.

"I'll try," Rapunzel said and started saying out the words softly along with the choir.

_And at last, I see the light._

_And it's like the sky is new._

Then Eugene joined her.

_And it's warm and real and bright. _

_And the world has somehow shifted. _

_All at once, everything is different. _

_Now that I see you. _

The emotion of the song was so raw. Eugene held Rapunzel's hand to steady her.

"Hey, I've got something for you."

"What?"

"Two lanterns."

"I'm beginning to regret that I have ever taken the Rachel manuscript hostage," Rapunzel sighed as she realized that Eugene had done everything in his power to make Medieval Weekend the best day of her life.

"You did what you had to do under the circumstance. I would have understood if I have known you the way I do now."

"You're not mad at me?"

"Mad? No. Not anymore."

"Huh," Rapunzel sighed.

"Hey, don't worry about it OK? Let's do this."

Eugene lighted the two lanterns and gave one to Rapunzel. They both held them aloft the water before they released them to the current simultaneously. The two lanterns floated together but were soon separated, as one was held back by a bigger lantern and the other pushed along by another.

"Well, nothing lasts forever," Eugene said down-heartedly as the two lanterns were separated.

"Uh," Rapunzel sighed.

"Hey, don't be sad," Eugene touched her chin gently. Rapunzel looked deep into his eyes, seeking reassurance. Eugene came closer to her. He could smell her sweet aroma, and her sadness made him feel like he was someone who must protect her from her violent mother, or save her from her prison. But he did not know how. She was going to go back to her place in her own will. And he was going back to his life. But he wanted so much to be the one who save her from all the heartache. And she was looking at him as if she was expecting something to happen.

In a split second, something caught his eyes. The boat was moving closer to the edge as Eugene was no longer taking control of it. The boat passed right by two familiar silhouettes in the dim light thrown off by the floating lanterns.

Two beefy, small-headed, tall men. The Stabbingtons! They're back. He gasped in a small exhalation that only he himself could hear. He retreated.

"Is... everything okay?"

"Huh? Oh yes! Uh... yes, of course. I just..."

"Hey dude! Row to the bank. Or you're gonna get trapped by the rigging. This is pretty much the end of the road for the boat ride, "a voice called from the bank.

"Coming!" Eugene yelled back and picked up the rower and started rowing. Rapunzel was quiet all the way. Eugene understood why.

This was pretty much the end of the road for her.

"Here's your photos, guys," a student volunteer handed them two copies of their photos. They were the record in pictures of the two of them on the boat, in the midst of the floating lights. They were beautiful.

"That is quick," Rapunzel commented.

"For memory's sake," Eugene said and handed one of the photos to Rapunzel. Rapunzel took out the novel 'My Charming Bandit' and put the photo between the pages of the book. Eugene unbuttoned his vest and put his in the inside pocket of his vest.

"Keep it close to the heart," he said absent-mindedly. Rapunzel smiled sadly.

"I guess this is the part where we get back to the Tower," Rapunzel said, her face the very picture of resignation and acceptance.

"I guess so."

Eugene took out his hoodie from her bag and put it on her. It was cold. He walked with his hands in his pocket, her bursting tie-dye bag on his back.

"It's damn cold. Let's take a cab," he said. It was more the fear of getting accosted by the Stabbingtons when he was WITH HER than it was about the cold. They got one and he opened the door for her.

"Where're you kids going?" The cab driver with the name 'Beegnose' sewn to his chest asked.

"The Grimmney Theme Park."

The ride was silent. Rapunzel was seated at the left side. She put her head on the glass, watching the streetlights and lights from the coming traffic, lost in thought, alone in reflection. Eugene put his hand on hers which she let splayed on the seat. She didn't react, as if she was so deep in her sadness and solitude. But he held on to her anyway.

A song was playing on the cab's radio. It had this insanely melancholic tune.

_So, I'll go, sit on the floor wearing your clothes  
All that I know is I don't know  
How to be something you miss_

I never thought we'd ever have a last kiss  
Never imagined we'd end like this  
Your name, forever the name on my lips  
Just like our last kiss, forever the name on my lips  
Forever the name on my lips, just like our last. 

God! Eugene wished the driver was playing another song. Because Beegnose was playing the CD on repeat, for God's sake.


	23. Return of the Stabbingtons

Author's Note: Thank you my wonderful reader & reviewers. **Romance and Musical, An Unknown Foreign Beauty, Mrs. Naara, WickedSong, PampleMousse70, melay8, AIOFanNCRM, Kyoru-Kitty-ArTist, Faith Rivens. **And all who put this story on their favourites and alerts. Sorry that it has been a few days since I last updated. And since the story will be reaching its end soon, your ideas are very much appreciated. Specifically, **what are your hopes for our favourite couple? What will Eugene and Rapunzel's future be in the modern world? What jobs? What kind of life/death/separation after Gothel? **

**Return of the Stabbingtons**

A glance to the rear window and Eugene saw that they were being followed. But he was not afraid. It would be over soon, he knew. As everything else that he had known these pass two days. One chapter of his life would be over. A very strange chapter. The taxi managed to shake off the Stabbingtons after a traffic light and Eugene asked Beegnose to stop at the least popular part of the theme park's edge. He led Rapunzel to the theme park through a secret short cut that let them in to the already closed theme park.

The park was solitary. The skeletal rides threw claw-like shadows on the ground. Maintaining camouflage but was not really worried of getting caught, the two walked to the Tower. Still having the magnetic pass-card, the door to the Tower opened to Eugene and Rapunzel without resistance.

"All clear," Eugene said when he saw that the Tower was not haunted by any malevolent physical entity, namely Rapunzel's mother.

Rapunzel went straight to the stacks of utility boxes under the stairs. To Eugene, it seemed that she remembered exactly where his brown backpack was kept, along with his precious Rachel manuscript. She opened the box.

But the box was empty. It showed on her terrified face. There was no brown backpack, let alone the _Life After Rachel_ manuscript.

"It's not here!" Rapunzel gasped.

"Are you sure?" Eugene asked. Rapunzel opened another box and another and another.

"It's not anywhere!" Rapunzel screeched in panic. She looked at him, eyes wide with fear. Eugene knew at once what kind of fear was it. She did not fear him. The fear in her eyes was worse than any kind of fear she would have for a person. He knew that she feared letting somebody down when she had promised that person something. In her world held together by promises, she was breaking her own rules that she didn't want to break. And she was terrified of herself.

It would be pure, outright lie if Eugene didn't acknowledge that he felt his throat constrict with a different kind of fear. His fear was not moral or ambiguous. It was physical. The Stabbingtons would not stop extorting him. They would drag Miss Walker into this. His life would be more messed up than it would ever be. He knew too that Rapunzel could see the rawness of the emotion in his face. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply, lines etched between his brows.

"I'm sorry, Eugene," Rapunzel whispered.

What could he say? He knew she didn't mean it to happen.

"Hey, it's OK," he said and was not able to look at her in the eyes. He continued saying, " I'm gonna go out. There's something I need to take care of."

Rapunzel watched him, eyes brimming with tears.

"I'll be right back," he said and turned to see her, sorry that he felt out of control for a few moments. But he knew that she had felt his frustration.

Eugene went out of the Tower and headed to the fence. The Stabbingtons were waiting outside with their car. Eugene put on a nonchalant look on his face, like everything was going according to plan.

"Ah, there you are! I've been searching everywhere for you guys since we got separated. Hey, the sideburns are coming in pretty nice, huh? Gotta be excited about that," Eugene said. Inside, he was saying, _what the hell am I talking about? These people are going to skin me alive if I don't think of something fast_.

"Holding out on us again, eh Rider?" Pollock said.

"What?"

"We heard you found something else, as well. It's weird that everything that people want in this city is with you. The manuscript, the girl."

"What are you guys talking about? I'm here to discuss about Rachel. The manuscript, remember? It's a manuscript. Not a girl," Eugene explained as if the two large men were a couple of five year-olds. The Stabbingtons were advancing on him. He could have run but he wanted to settle things so everyone would be satisfied and not take the wrong course of action.

"We still want that. And the girl too."

Eugene was very surprised with the mention of this new element. Could the girl be Rapunzel? _But that is impossible_. He steadied himself and talked on to gain more information.

"Does this girl have a name? What does she look like?"

"She was with you at the floating lanterns thing."

"What?" The sentence caught him off guard. Questions ran in his mind like a speeding commuter train. _Why would they want Rapunzel for? Do they know that she is with him now? Do they know that she is in then Tower right now? But as long as she is in there, she will be safe. But how long will she stay inside? _He was about to make a dash back to the Tower when Horace pulled out a gun from his back pocket and point it at him.

"We know where the girl is and we're gonna get her in a second. We're not gonna hurt her if you give us the manuscript."

"Oh come on, guys," Eugene lifted his hand in resignation. He was no match for the Stabbingtons state of arms.

"Knock him out. We need to take the girl now," Horace said to Pollock.

Pollock stepped closer to Eugene and punched him in the nose. The hit made stars appear in his vision and sent him reeling. Another hit and he was on the ground, in pain and prone, but still lucid.

"We need to take her to the Pier now! Or we'll be in big trouble. We'll take care of him and the manuscript after we got her," Pollock said.

"Aren't we going to take her to her mother?"

"Focus, Horace! Get her and then drive to the Pier!"

"No!" Eugene struggled to get up.

A shot of electricity went through his body before he completely blacked out.

**End note: Again, I want to hear your thoughts so I can consider them to be included in the final chapter. What are your hopes for our favourite couple? What will Eugene and Rapunzel's future be in the modern world? What jobs? What kind of life/death/separation after Gothel? **


	24. Broken Promises

**Author's Note: Thank you for the input, guys. An Unknown Foreign Beauty - Yours are invaluable. I will consider them carefully. WickedSong & PampleMousse70 – it's OK. I myself like to be surprised if I'm reading a fic.**

**Broken Promises**

What had she done? The question cut into her nerves like knives. He had done everything in his ability to keep his side of the bargain. She knew that Eugene didn't have much to call his own. He was renting and he was a student who worked to pay for his education. He was an orphan, who had nobody he could call home to (except for the elderly Miss Walker) and he didn't even have a cell phone that everyone seemed to own. But he paid for her square meals and then the extras (cupcakes, drinks, candy floss). He was on his alert to everything going on around her so she would have her experience of Medieval Weekend as he had promised. And in the numbing cold, he had paid for the taxi ride. She didn't know how important was the backpack and its content, the _Life After Rachel _manuscript to him and why did he wanted it so desperately, but it didn't matter. She promised him. And when it was time for her to keep her side of the bargain, she failed. She, who was so bent on upholding the sanctity of a promise.

All her life, Rapunzel had all the time in the world. The days trudged along like traffic on peak hour. But now, she had never felt so out of time and so desperately rushing to get something found or done. While she knew where everything was kept in Mother's apartment and knew exactly where to find something, losing something she was so sure of having it kept safe had shattered her reality. Rapunzel turned everything upside down. All the boxes under the stairs. with all sorts of things inside them – decorations, old costumes, stationery, shoes, dolls, folded rugs, all over the place now.

But the manuscript was still nowhere to be found. It was as if the manuscript, the brown backpack was never there in the first place. It was as if the past two days had been a dream and she was back again in the Tower, exactly at the moment when Mother would pick her up after her day as the Grimm's fairytale Rapunzel was over.

But she knew that what had happened had been true. There were the green chameleon plush toy and the commemorative plaque in her tie-dye bag. The novel 'The Charming Bandit' and the photo too.

She knew she wasn't dreaming. It was all real. The escape from Mother's apartment was real. The walk in the park was real. The nightmarish shoot-out at The Black Swan was real. The University and Medieval Weekend were real. The floating lights were real. Eugene Fitzherbert was real and no longer a beautiful stranger/ art subject she used to spy from her window. And she destroyed everything, with or without her so called 'witchery'. With or without her witchery, she had made her parting with Eugene Fitzherbert filled with resentment and anger. She could not imagine how betrayed Eugene had felt.

She had met the only person in the world that had understood her and she betrayed him. Well done, Rapunzel, well done, she could almost heard Mother say.

She must apologize. If that was the last thing she would ever do before they say goodbye. She would understand if he would never want to see her again, even from the street below, from the place he worked. Rapunzel dashed out of the Tower. It was dark, and her eyes were yet to adjust from the light in the Tower to the darkness outside.

"Eugene! I'm so sorry!" She was practically sobbing, begging.

A shadow emerged into her vision. The silhouette of a man. Rapunzel sucked in her tears and cleared her throat. He didn't leave after all.

"I'm sorry. I was starting to think you were so mad at me and left," she laughed in tears.

"He did," a voice answered and it wasn't Eugene's. The silhouette now became more pronounced and it was absolutely not Eugene. It was of two men, very tall, very large and burly-looking with small heads compared to their huge bodies.

"What? Who are you?" Every fibre in her body screamed alert but somehow she was rooted to the spot. Because she needed to know whether Eugene had really left in anger or he had his other reasons.

"Doesn't matter who we are. This Eugene fellow had told us where we can find you." Explanation was coming in frightening bits.

"What do you want?" Rapunzel asked bitterly, almost angrily.

"You."

"Why?"

"That's the thing. We don't know and we don't care. We're just gonna have to take you away."

"He wouldn't do that. He wouldn't want to hurt me," Rapunzel said, beginning to retreat. Or would he? She wouldn't know. Whoever these people were, they found her exactly where they needed her to be.

"Well, he isn't here now, is he? The lady's man, Eugene. Disappeared as soon as he knew you're useless to him."

Rapunzel gasped. Realization hit like lightning. He wanted the manuscript. And when he discovered that she didn't have it, he traded her for its loss.

Rapunzel didn't care to hear more. She didn't know the reason behind all these, but Mother had warned her about it all. And in her terrified mind, she began to regret everything. But as crestfallen as she was, she didn't want to be corrupted by the grubby hands of the two thugs. She ran and they followed, laughing, as if they were on some sort of a fun hunt.

When she thought that everything was at its darkest, brilliant lights flooded the theme park. The alarm sounded and people shouting were heard.

Someone had alerted the guards at the main guard house of the two intruders!

Even though the two men were large, tough and criminal in nature, they were no match for the number of the park's guards. The theme park's security got them cornered and with violent struggle the two were captured. Rapunzel, seeing that her pursuers were apprehended, fell to the ground, chest heaving and crying soundlessly.

"Why are you here at this ungodly hour, girl?" The Captain of the Guards asked her. Rapunzel wasn't able to answer. How could she? What sort of answer could match the man's query? Suddenly, a familiar voice came to her ears.

"Rapunzel?"

She looked up and saw Mother, in a strange get up, as if she had just return from Medieval Weekend herself. But Rapunzel wouldn't ask questions no more. She needed her Mother right now, more than ever.

"Mother?"

They both collapsed into each other's embrace.

"Oh, my precious girl!" Mother was crying too.

"Mother..." Rapunzel sobbed.

"Are you all right? Are you hurt?"

"Mother, how did you –" Rapunzel would not believe her luck. Mother, her guardian angel. Her protector.

"I was so worried about you, dear. So I followed you and I saw them attack you and I warned the guards," Mother said as she held her face. The woman looked sick and older, sick and aged with worry for her missing.

"These two are going to be handed over to the police. But who's this, Bathory?" The Captain of the Guards asked.

"This is my daughter," Mother said as she shielded Rapunzel from the searching eyes of the security team.

"Do you want to follow us to the police station and press charges?"

"No. This has been too much for one night. My daughter must go home. She is a very sheltered girl."

"If you say so," said the Captain in resignation.

"You were right, Mother. You were right about everything," Rapunzel sobbed with her face on Mother's warm chest.

"I know, darling. I know," Mother said soothingly.

"Come, let's get in the van."

"I need to take my bag."

Mother opened the door to the Tower and Rapunzel took her bag. She followed Mother to the van. And Mother closed the door next to her with a force so audible and a face which was set in finality.

As she took her place in the driver's seat she said,"There. It never happened! I really did try, Rapunzel. I tried to warn you what was out there. The world is dark, and selfish, and cruel. If it finds even the slightest sign of good, it destroys it."

Rapunzel did not dare to look at her Mother's face. Her eyes were fixed on something on the dashboard. Her eyes widen in horror.


	25. The Lost Ones or Gothel Unleashed

Thanks **WickedSong** for making the effort to leave a review. Welcome back **FaithRivens**. I have enjoyed your 'Tangled' videos on YouTube and they've been my source of inspiration though I'm not much of a video person. My fav currently is 'I Live To Let You Shine'. **PampleMousse70 **and **An Unknown Foreign Beauty**, hopefully you will stay to the end despite knowing everything 'Tangled'.

**The Lost Ones (or Gothel Unleashed)**

She was already giddy with anticipation. Gothel was too giddy that she couldn't feel her toes. Her mind was too far advancing into the future that was going to take place at the Pier, that she forgot that she had left the sordid manuscript _Life After Rachel_ sitting on the dashboard.

"Why is the manuscript with you, Mother?" Rapunzel asked her as if the manuscript was common knowledge between the two of them.

"I found it," Gothel answered nothing but the truth.

"I must give it back to him."

"Who? The criminal? The very person who released the two thugs on you?" Gothel laughed at Rapunzel as if she had requested for something so ridiculous.

"No, he wouldn't. I don't believe you," Rapunzel said with the tone of someone who suddenly had an epiphany. And Gothel knew why. Rapunzel was holding the photo of her and the boy together on the boat, her eyes far away into the past. Gothel eyed the photo in disgust.

"You wouldn't say that if the two thugs had hurt you. You wouldn't say that if I hadn't managed to save you from him and them."

"I promised him."

Rapunzel extended her hand right under Gothel's nose to take the manuscript. Gothel stopped her, the woman's hand holding her wrist like a vice.

"What do you think you're doing, Rapunzel?" Gothel hissed.

"I'm giving it back to him," Rapunzel retorted with steely determination.

"Where will you go in the dead of the night? He won't be there for you. He left you!"

"I don't care! I will not follow you. And I will find him!" Rapunzel yelled. There was fear in the girl's eyes and Gothel knew it wasn't fear toward her presence in the girl's life. Gothel realized that her 'daughter' no longer feared her 'mother'. Rapunzel no longer feared losing Mother, no longer feared being abandoned, and no longer feared being alone in the world. And all these because of the criminal, trespasser, thief and wanted man, Flynnigan Rider.

Gothel also saw a disruption to her plan of driving to the Pier, where both their destinies lie. How on earth was she going to drive the van to the Pier if Rapunzel was struggling and squirming in the van?

"Give it to me, Mother! I have made a promise!" Rapunzel yelled, fighting against her vice-like grip.

The girl and her promises! What a nuisance!

Gothel let go for a second and Rapunzel snatched the manuscript. In that split second, Gothel had already taken out her gun from her handbag and swung the butt of her 'Dagger' to Rapunzel's face. The contact of metal and meat sounded like a dull thud. Rapunzel recoiled in pain, hand to her face, the manuscript sliding to her legs. After she had just done that, Gothel felt a strange kind of power surging through her body. It was different from after carrying out the manipulations and brainwashing she had done before. She felt so in control, with brilliantly dark energy radiating from her being. Gothel smiled. The mental had just gone physical.

"You just can't let it go, Rapunzel."

Gothel bit her own lips to prepare herself for exertion as another forceful swing of the butt of the gun hit Rapunzel's face and the girl sank into her seat, head lolling to the left. Gothel could only imagine the kind of pain she had inflicted on the girl, one that was blinding and paralyzing but Rapunzel had made her choice. That was it. Do or die. The choice seemed only natural.

"You want me to be the bad guy? Fine, I'm the bad guy."

Gothel began to think of a way to secure the girl in the van. She wished she had duct tape in the van but she didn't. She rummaged through Rapunzel's bag and threw the annoying stuff she got out of it. A green chameleon plush toy, a bodice-ripper novel and her chunky sneakers that Rapunzel had borrowed. Gothel took out the shoelaces and tied one around Rapunzel's wrists. She tied it so tight that if the girl struggled she would then cut her wrists with the rope. She did the same to the girl's ankles. Next, Gothel took the scarf Rapunzel was wearing around her neck and pulled it tight around her mouth, so she wouldn't make any noise and distract her during the drive. Finally, she pulled the seatbelt over Rapunzel.

She had the gun ready on the dashboard. She was thinking if Rapunzel would come to and struggle or cause havoc she was going to hit her again. She was going to hit the girl into submission. Again and again.

Now, she breathed, to the Pier.

The Pier of Destiny.


	26. Confrontation or The Pier

Welcome back, **AIONFanNCRM** (I thought you were still mad at me...sigh, but then, you're back, yay!) **Faith Rivens** – Thank you for reviewing even though it's a short chapter. There are a lot of characters blacking out, so I kind of stop each time a character blacked out (Keep making those vids, now that the DVD is coming out. I freaking love them. Your song choices are awesome). **PampleMousse70, WickedSong, An Unknown Foreign Beauty** – please keep supporting this fic. I am glad I have really dedicated reviewers.

**The Pier**

"Rapunzel!"

She was his first thought when Eugene woke with a gasp. He shot up from lying position and scrambled on the seat of a car. He did not know exactly what hit him. It could be a taser or a stun gun. He did not know how long he lost consciousness but he knew he lost it completely. He did not have the time to look at his watch when he was cornered by the Stabbingtons. But from the digital clock display in the Stabbingtons' car he could see that it was fifty minutes after twelve. He wasn't out for too long, he could only guess.

He quickly assessed his situation. He found the Satbbingtons had left the car key in the ignition, meaning that they were planning to take care of him as soon possible. Eugene started the engine and drove the car away from its secluded hide-out to the entrance of the park. The guards were at work. There was no sign of the Stabbingtons or Rapunzel. But they were not there. Everything seemed in order except for him and his desperate search for Rapunzel. Eugene tried hard to figure what had happened. The amusement park was as quiet as a grave. Everyone has left. They must have taken her into another vehicle. He remembered what they said.

They were taking her to the Pier.

It was a wild goose chase. Or like searching for a needle in a haystack, not to say that he had ever chased a goose or searched for needles in a stack of hay. The Pier was a huge place. And she could be anywhere. But he had a car, which reason it being abandoned was never clear to him. He did not have the time to investigate all the options for that to happen. He did not have the resources or the counsel to form proper logical reasoning. In his mind, he was bent on finding Rapunzel. He did not know what he was getting into. He was expecting that he would have to face the Stabbingtons and explain to them that he has got the manuscript but they were going to have to let her go first.

It took ten minutes for him to drive his way furiously to the Pier. When he reached the place, he kept driving, circling around the place and its many parts. The only dependable light was the zodiacal light that shone from the sky. There were lamplights but they were scattered and solitary, one too far from the other. But his night sight was good. The pier was empty, but some of the structures did create blind spots. Tall beams of metal rose to support the whole structure of the pier from the sand embankment. Eugene saw no one and drove on to the more habitable part of the Pier, where on sunny days people sat around on the platform to feed the seagulls and watch the waves and feel the breeze. He was expecting to see the Stabbingtons, or any sort of vehicle. If he saw any indication of the two thugs, he would be able to hatch his next course of action. But most importantly, he must find Rapunzel first.

Then he saw her. That silhouette was unmistakable. Against the orange skyline, sitting on a bench on the platform. Her back was to the railing that kept her from falling to the wide open sea. Who would have mistaken the outline of her round, symmetrical head? That thin, fragile looking neck and those small shoulders? He drove to the nearest point the tarmac could bring him to her, parked the car, killed the engine and he wouldn't repeat the mistake the Stabbingtons made. He took the car key off the ignition.

He ran towards her.

In the dim light, he could see that it was really her, alone in the darkness, the Stabbingtons not around. She was alone. She must be very angry. She must have thought he had abandoned her. She must have thought what a douche he was. He wanted to prove her wrong. He was happy, straightforwardly, purely happy to see her. He was never truly happy until today. Even more so at this moment.

"Rapunzel! I thought I'll never see you again!" He breathed in pure relief.

And then as he came closer, he saw that she was unmoving and part of her face was covered. Her eyes were wide with fear. She was struggling against something that kept her restrained.

"What?" A question came out in angry gasp. Damn, the Stabbingtons! They were animals! He knelt down to the level of her face and touched her cheek. There were bruises and cuts on her face. Her face was wet with tears. He slid off the scarf from her mouth.

"I'm gonna get you outta here!"

"She's going to kill you! Leave me, Eugene!" Rapunzel screamed once the scarf got off her mouth.

"Hey, relax," he tried laughing even though his insides hurt to see her bruised and battered. The Stabbingtons were going to get it from him, he swore to God.

He started to work on the cruel shoelace tied to her wrists. He could see it had started to cut into her flesh. Suddenly, Rapunzel began to struggle violently. He had only undone the first loop of the insidious knot.

"Eugene! Mother! No! Please!" She screamed as her eyes were directed to something behind him.

At the word 'mother', Eugene turned around and got up from his knees. He saw at her once, a few yards away from him. She must have emerged from behind one of the unmanned hotdog stalls littering this part of the Pier. The first thing he noticed about Rapunzel's mother, the woman was carrying a large handbag, like she was going grocery shopping. The strange medieval get-up and the black cloak was besides the point. Despite his memory of her swinging a craft knife at him, she looked very domestic. She was just a mother who was worried about her daughter and had misunderstood everything that had been going on between him and her daughter. The first time they met, he was a trespasser. So her reaction to his whole existence was understandable.

But now, he had seen the bruises and cuts on Rapunzel's face. And the laces that cut through her wrists and ankles. He had to talk to her. This woman needed help, he thought.

"Ma'am - lady," he began.

"Why are you doing this - "

And then from the large, domestic-looking, harmless handbag, she, Rapunzel's mother, possibly his future mother-in-law, he was even thinking about it at that moment, withdrew a gleaming gun.

"Whoa-" Eugene said and began to step back towards Rapunzel as if to shield her. Before he could move nearer to her, he saw a flash followed by a deafening bang.

Something hit him in the torso and the very thing that hit him exploded inside him. The sensation was colossally shocking. He was surprised he was still standing, but it was only because he had willed himself to do so. He had to be strong for her. Find strength in pain. Find strength in pain, he repeated in his mind, which was sending every distress signal that ever existed in the human nervous system. Involuntarily, his hand moved to his gut.

"Shit," he cursed as he saw the blood on his hand. He was bleeding like a stuck pig. Blood did not come in smudges, but heavy trickle.

"No, Eugene! Eugene!" Rapunzel screamed as she began to heave her herself out of the bench and she fell to the ground. She moved, crawling with tied ankles towards the spot he was standing.

After a second of hopeless reflection on his sordid life, Eugene's knees buckled and he fell. Pain began to hit him like soaring waves of the ocean. He began gasping, breathing in desperation, as if such would lessen the pain. Despite that and everything else, including the shooter who was now walking over his body, as if he was already dead, he was thinking about her.

_I am going to die with this girl thinking that I abandoned her. Well done, Fitzherbert. Well done._

_She needed me and I left her._

_I failed her. _


	27. The Fallen

**Author's Note: **My dear reviewers and readers, the very reason that you might have enjoyed these chapters (or even the whole fic!) is because 'Tangled' is perfect. Because this is a tribute to this great animated film which has made a super busy 36 year old mom of 2 super active little boys and 7 to 3 working woman and suffering homemaker write two 'Tangled' fics and update like crazy. Read on! And thank you. **Faith Rivens** – I need that video. **Alltangledup95** – thank you for dropping a review. Wicked **Song, Mrs. Naara, PampleMousse07, An Unknown Foreign Beauty** – I can't wait to write the end as well. But time is of the essence. I do not own 'Tangled' and that is OKAY! Who needs to own 'Tangled' when it is already in one's heart?So, come Monday I've got work again. Before I get bogged down with the usual stuff, I'll leave you guys this chapter.

**The Fallen**

How do you put back together pieces of a broken glass? How do you put it back together so that it would become perfect as it was before? No lines, no cracks that would tell that it had been broken?

The questions rammed into her mind when Mother pulled the trigger. She saw the gun, a real gun for the first time in her life in Mother's hand when she was about to knock her out. She knew what a projectile fired from a gun could do. It was in the book _How To Survive Anything, Anywhere_ as well as the _A to Z of First Aid and Family Aid_. She rushed desperately to Eugene's heaving body when Mother stopped her in her effort of crawling towards him. She was staring right at Mother's feet, which stood in between her and her suffering Eugene.

"Now look at what you've done, Rapunzel," Mother said, waving her gun like it was a paintbrush or a kitchen utensil.

"Please, Mother. I need to see his wounds," Rapunzel begged. She was holding on to Mother's legs.

"Oh, don't worry, dear. Our secret will die with him," Mother said and laughed. Not an evil laugh, but a small laugh like nothing important had happened.

"No!" Rapunzel yelled in anger as she began to pull at Mother's red long skirt.

"And as for us, we are going where no one will ever find you again," Mother said as she grit her teeth and took Rapunzel's arms. She meant to pull Rapunzel away from the scene. Rapunzel saw Eugene writhing in unspeakable pain. He was only a metre away from her, yet she could not reach him, let alone touch him and comfort him. She used all her might to push Mother aside and get to Eugene. She knew that a victim of a gunshot wound must be attended to immediately and then sent to the hospital within ten minutes of the shooting. They call it the 'Golden Hour'. How could they call it the 'Golden Hour' when it was only ten minutes, she could not understand.

"Eugene!" While her hands were already free, Rapunzel pushed and clawed her way through Mother. And Mother, as if she was a cat playing with an injured mouse, let Rapunzel pass and she rushed to Eugene's side.

"Eu-Eugene!" She called his name in trepidation.

"Rapunzel - agh!" Eugene gasped and breathed painfully as Rapunzel touched his abdomen to unbutton his blood-soaked vest. She had to see the penetration so she could apply pressure where it was needed most. But the buttons! There were so many of them. And when she was done with the buttons, there was his white shirt with more buttons! But she saw where the bullet went through and she closed her eyes in regret and fear. She took her scarf and pressed it to the wound. All the while, Eugene's chest heaved in pain.

But he didn't say a word. He didn't call out to anyone, or told her that it hurt like hell. He didn't tell that he had difficulty breathing. He didn't tell that he felt tired and was going to fall asleep. To her chagrin, he even tried to sit himself up as if he wanted to prove that he was just getting a scratch. A scratch! She remembered his rendition of Mercutio. That was before Mercutio fell and cursed 'A plague on both your houses!' She couldn't lose him. He, who had matched her curiosity with his lust for life. He, who had recognised their needs to belong and yet be free.

She remembered every instruction in the book. If the padding got completely soaked with blood, just add new ones on it without removing the soaked ones. But she knew that this could not go on forever here on the Pier.

"Mother, please. Call the hospital!" Rapunzel begged Mother. She realized that no amount of first aid could save Eugene's life if he was not sent to the hospital as soon as possible.

"Oh Rapunzel, even if I wanted to, I couldn't. My cell phone's battery is dead! And of course I won't. This place will be crawling with the police if I do that. And I'm expecting a guest tonight!"

There was both joy and anger in Mother's voice. That would explain her ranting and cursing toward the tiny instrument when they arrived at the Pier, before she pulled her and sat her on the bench, as if she was making her ready for someone who would come and take her away.

"Come on, let's go. Leave him here. He's FISH BAIT now," Gothel said as she pulled Rapunzel's hands which were holding Eugene's wounds together. Rapunzel pushed Mother away vehemently. Eugene clutched his own wounds when she let go.

"No!" She yelled.

Mother found that her determination was too strong, and Mother resorted to using her gun again. She raised the chunk of metal and yelled. Rapunzel had a terrifying feeling that Mother was no longer her mother. She had a hunch that this wasn't just about Eugene Fitzherbert or Flynn Rider anymore. Both she and Eugene were fighting something greater than just a mother's insecurity about her daughter fleeing from the nest. And this wasn't about saving the world from her curse either. Because the world was beautiful before Mother pulled the trigger.

"Rapunzel, really! Enough already! Stop fighting me! Do you want me to hit you again?"

Rapunzel stopped struggling but every muscle in her body was tense, as if ready to tear at Mother if she was given the chance.

"Come on! Hit me! Hit me until my skull cracked. But I won't stop! For every minute of the rest of my life I will fight! I will never stop trying to get away from you!" Rapunzel yelled in response.

"But, if you let me save him, I will go with you."

Rapunzel's voice tapered off at the end, her face softening. The reaction Rapunzel saw on Mother's face let her know that Mother knew Rapunzel meant what she said. And it was true. It was a promise she would keep. It was a very important promise but she would still keep it if it wasn't.

"No! No, Rapunzel..." Eugene groaned at her pleadings to Mother.

"I'll never run, I'll never try to escape. Just let me heal him, and you and I will be together, forever, just like you want. Everything will be the way it was. I promise. Just like you want. Just give me the instruments and I will go with you, wherever you want to take me."

Mother took that into serious consideration. She bent to Eugene's body and frisked his pants pockets roughly despite him shrinking away when she touched him. Gothel kept jerking and pulling at his already tortured body until she found his car keys.

"In case you get any ideas about following us,"she said as she threw the key into the sea. Next, she searched in her large handbag and threw the enchanted instruments – the charmed book and pen to Rapunzel's face. Then she stood by the two with her gun ready. Rapunzel realised that Mother was going to knock Eugene unconscious after Rapunzel had healed Eugene. What other option did she have? Eugene would be better knocked unconscious than dead. This was everybody's last chance.

"I'm so sorry. Everything is going to be okay, though," she comforted him, touching his cheek and tucked in his wild cowlick which fell to his twisted, tormented face.

" No, Rapunzel," Eugene was begging her not to heal him with her written words in the enchanted book and the spell-bound pen.

"I promise, you have to trust me," Rapunzel reassured him.

"No!"

"Come on, just breathe."

"I can't let you do this!" In pain, the sentence came out as weak struggling words. She knew if he had his all, he would be yelling at her.

"I can't let you die."

"But if you do this, then you will die," Eugene said, as with each word he exhaled an ounce of precious energy faded.

Rapunzel realised that she knew what he meant. But she hadn't thought about it. She was just thinking about fixing him. Even if she had to promise eternity to Mother. But eternity was nothing if she knew he was breathing, living in this wonderful world. He would be forever visiting the lanterns and getting his boat ride. He deserved his second chance. Everybody did.

"Hey. It's going to be all right," Rapunzel comforted him. Eugene smiled weakly as he saw her preparing to write her magical, reality-bending words in the enchanted book. Rapunzel saw that he finally had resigned in his effort to stop her from going ahead with her promise to Mother.

" Rapunzel... wait. If this is good bye..." He said and put his right hand on her face, guiding her mouth towards his trembling pale lips. Rapunzel understood. She bent closer, completely distracted by this saddening final gesture. And as she did, he moved his left hand and snatched the pen from her right. He smashed its nib to the concrete floor of the Pier. Ink made from the ashes of the dead, she could tell by such evil and cruelty the instrument had inspired, spilled from the pen. Next, in the space of time less than a single second, Eugene snatched the book from her left hand. Summoning all the energy he had left, Eugene swung the book made from shrouds of the buried, she could tell too, high above his head that the book flew through the railing and fell into the sea beneath the Pier.

"Eugene, wh-?" Rapunzel tried to stop his hand, but he had done all he had to do in a flash. In doing so, he caused more damage to his wounds and as a result, he became totally spent and now had slumped on the concrete floor, his hand just resting on his wound, no longer clutching it.

What had he done? Did he just forfeit all the chances of him being healed? And for what? So he could release her from her promise to Mother? Rapunzel asked herself angrily, regretfully and in sheer frustration. It was true. Her broken Eugene could never be fixed again.

Mother's reaction to the current event was the answer to her questions.

"NO! Oh no... no! What have you done? What have you done?"

Mother ran to the edge of the Pier and climbed over the railing, like a demon animal. She jumped into the water in pursuit of the book. Mother fell into the water and managed to catch hold of the book in her hands. But the book being ancient and corrupted in its origin, and already worn from years and years of use, had its pages separated in the briny sea as soon as it came in contact with Mother's hands. The separate pages were then carried away by the waves. Rapunzel held out her hands for Mother so she could grab it, even though it was impossible as the space between platform and the water level was wide. But Mother was still clamouring after the pages, until her generous dress and cloak were no longer able to keep her afloat. She was drowning as well as she was carried away by the waves, head bobbing in and out of the cold sea in autumn.

" No! No! Ahhhh!" Those were Mother's final words to her ears.

And just like that, Mother was gone.

And soon Eugene would be too. Rapunzel spun around to see her fallen knight-beloved. What she saw broke her heart into a million pieces.


	28. Dreams Lost

Oh my God. My 100th review! I mean, there are writers who got thousands reviews and writers who's got hundreds upon hundreds of reviews. But to my standard, this is great. Welcome new reviewer, **HollyBatali**. And old friends, **Alltangledup95,Wicked** **Song, Mrs. Naara, PampleMousse07, An Unknown Foreign Beauty, Romance and Musical, Faith Rivens, AIOFanNCRM, Kyoru_KiTTy_Artist, **_**and**_** melay8. **I owe the 100 reviews to you guys.

**Dreams Lost**

It was amazing how the lack in strength and control was replaced by a heightened sense of perception and deeper ability of reflection. And that means the pain he experienced had increased tenfold and his conscience was working overtime.

What? Did the crazy woman jump into the water and drown? Eugene asked himself as he was lying on the concrete, flat on his back. He now had not even the strength to clutch his own wounds, let alone take Rapunzel's hand and lead her away from this damned, insane place. He didn't expect that to happen, her mother jumping into the sea to save the cursed book. He was thinking somewhere along the line of the woman arrested for abuse or shooting her daughter's boyfriend. But never the woman jumping into the sea and drowned.

And it hurt him extremely just thinking of the repercussions.

What was going to happen to Rapunzel now? Her only link to the world, her origin, her lifeline had been swallowed by the hungry sea of the Pier. Where would she go now? Where would she head to? Would she even know how to find her way back to the apartment, on her own, in the dead dark night? Would she walk? Or take a cab? She could search for money in his pockets, while he... he... he could not continue. How much left he's got? Will that be enough? And then? How would she enter the apartment? How was she going to survive the cold night with only his hoodie on her? How would she sleep on the sidewalk? With the denizens of the night crawling on it?

How he wished that God would give him a second chance in the cruellest sense. Like, OK, Fitzherbert, I'm gonna let you have one hour, no, fifteen minutes, to take her back to her apartment and make sure she is safe, before I put you here again with all your irreparable injuries and thus bringing you to your end. Capice?

But he guessed it never worked that way. Because as much as he wanted it to happen, he felt his pain heightened to a crescendo of hellishness even though he no longer had the reserves he needed to struggle against it.

He felt Rapunzel cradling his head and upper body, her touch like water to a man who had walked the desert for a hundred days. He was drowning into blackness, both in his lungs and his consciousness and she held him, becoming the final connection he had with the material world, his life on earth.

"I'm right here, don't go, stay with me Eugene!"

Her voice was breaking his heart. How he wanted to tell her how much he wanted to stay with her. But... one look at his pierced and bleeding torso and anyone would know the outcome. The bullet had exploded inside him and shredded his insides with shrapnel. He couldn't. He knew he couldn't no matter how much he wanted to.

He didn't regret what happened though, except for the fact that he could not see her back to her apartment safely. He felt her touching his chest where he kept the pen. The pen which had become his vial of poison and her dagger in 'Romeo and Juliet'. Ah, the memories.

Then he felt the skin of his arms tingling. She was writing on his arms! And her lips were chanting the words she was writing.

_Heal what has been hurt..._

How he cherished her, despite her optimistic foolishness. No amount of witchery would save him now, with the book and the pen swallowed by the sea. He knew that she would have a rough night, but at least her mother would no longer hit her, belittle her, scare her and imprison her. He knew she would survive, she would learn to survive in the world. He knew she was smart and clever and a thinker, with a natural sweetness that can melt people's hearts when they be with her. He had been with her, so he knew. Anyway, she had read all the books she needed to last her a hundred years of a fulfilling life.

Now, in their final hour together, he didn't want her to lie to herself. Neither had he wanted to lie to himself. He needed to tell her something.

"Rapunzel..." he called to her weakly.

_Change the Fate's design._

But she wouldn't listen.

"Hey..." He wished he could call her name louder.

_Save what has been lost._

He must make her listen to him. Make her know that it all didn't matter. That foolish talk about an island in the South China Sea and exotic women in sarongs. All then mindless concerns about his 'Flynn' student ID, and the insufferable case of the manuscript about the missing Rachel Kingsley. He was sorry for what was going to happen to Miss Walker but he couldn't help it now. All the second chances that he was always dreaming for and all the lucky tickets he had been handed had run out. She needed to know that all did not matter. She needed to know his true dream.

"Rapunzel!" He gasped, the last of his strength spent.

Rapunzel stopped pushing the pen on his arm and looked at him with her face all scrunched up. He wished he could tell her that she was prettier when she was happy.

"What?" There was a tone of resignation in her voice, as she now held his hand to her cheek.

"You were my new dream."

At first, he didn't know if she heard it. But he felt great relief when he heard her say something in return.

"And you were mine."

How he wished he could get up now and take her and lead her to warmth and safety. But he could only see her cry before he closed his eyes and was not able to feel anything or think of anything.


	29. Stages of Grief

**Author's Note:**

**AIOFanNCRM** – Glad that you like the relaxed pace. **Faith Rivens** – I'm listening to _Boats & Birds_ while writing this, thanks to you. Gah! **PampleMousse70 **– I can't help the cliff hangers, they're like in the film, except that they didn't stop the film so we can yell at the screen. **An Unknown Foreign Beauty** – You yourself killed Flynn too many times! **Wicked Song** – The Healing Scene is tricky. I don't wanna do a copout healing scene. But without a copout healing scene Flynn will surely die... I don't know. **Naara **– Drowning is the best for Gothel. It's ambiguous and not final-ish until you find the body. Glad you liked it. And you sound like a FANGIRL to me. And I am too! Tangled DVDs are yet to arrive on my shore. **Holy Batali** – Glad you love the R+J allusions. My favourite tale. **Alltangledup95 **– I wish I had written Eugene better at the beginning. I was influenced by the desire to do dark till I took away the characters' light in them. I forgot that the story itself is already a dark one. **Romance and Musical** – That thought of sending her home safely won't be possible if it was at her apartment/ Gothel's tower itself. So the Pier became necessary.

**Stages of Grief (or Taken Away)**

She was his new dream.

And she had dreamt of lanterns, seasonal fairs, fresh air, a walk in the park, playing in the stream, books, Chinese food, Mexican food, shopping for dresses and shoes, learning, watching a play in motion, dancing in the sunlight.

And today she knew that those dreams were temporary and would cease their wonders once she experienced them.

But one dream remained.

A dream that she was not able to put into words for the simple fact that she didn't know that such dream existed.

The dream of HIM.

Seeing him, talking with him, touching his strong arms, hanging on to him like she hung on to dear life. Making things right for him, listening to his deep and lonesome voice, looking into his eyes, teasing him. Laughing at his jokes, telling him that he is wrong and he admits it albeit begrudgingly. Sharing his view of the world, knowing his story that he reluctantly shared, forgive him for his mistakes and he hers.

And the dream shattered, torn to pieces, snuffed out right before her eyes in mere minutes. One minute he was there, as strong as an ancient tree and the next he was a shell of memories.

She gently placed his hand back on to his wound. He became her sleeping tired knight after years of battle. His eyes closed but his lips slightly parted as if he wanted to say something. She touched his still chest and let her finger traced the plane of his body until she reached his bloody abdomen.

She was in the middle of something important when he stopped her and told her his dream. Denial conquering her rationality, she picked up the pen again and wrote on his other arm. She pressed the nib on his skin and wished he would wake up and told her to _stop hurting_ him with the pen. She didn't believe that all these were for nothing. She was cursed. She was gifted. She became an addiction. She could do this. The ink came out black and thick. Like his blood was red and thick.

_Heal what has been hurt_

_Change the Fate's design_

_Save what has been lost_

She stopped and searched for words that would deserve to be on his knightly arm.

_Bring back what once was MINE_

_What once was MINE._

So she wrote. And cried on his face, like a prima donna in her final scene before death or exile.

But he lay still like a stone.

Suddenly, a ray of light emerged from Eugene's body. And something told Rapunzel that it wasn't magical or anything to do with her witchery. It was the sound that accompanied the light. The sound of footsteps and creaking noise as if something heavy was pushed on the concrete. Rapunzel turned around. It was a man holding a flashlight and his other hand was pushing a trolley filled with newspapers, blankets, water bottles and other things needed by a person permanently living on the streets.

"Did someone get shot?" The man asked. It was the homeless man they met in the park. She remembered faces permanently because of the fact that she seldom saw them.

"Please help him," Rapunzel begged the man to do something, anything. The man came closer and bent on his knees closer to Eugene.

"Sweet mother of – I've been to three wars and this one's –, "he didn't finish that sentence.

"I'm sorry, kid. But I called EVERYONE when I heard gunshot. I think, they're here," he said and continued rolling his trolley away.

"Watch out for yourself, kid. These people are going to tear you apart," he said as his voice trailed off.

Rapunzel reflected bitterly. Nothing could tear her apart anymore. Mother had completely destroyed her when she let the bullet fly and tore Eugene apart. Rapunzel would remain as she was now and never be torn apart by anything else ever again. What would tear her apart when his leaving had left her in pieces?

A second later, Rapunzel heard the familiar sound of mechanical wailing that she always have heard from Mother's apartment window. Soon, lights and sounds from vehicles flooded the place. People swarmed the Pier. It was amazing how light and people were never there where she needed them the most. If this was the case ten minutes ago, Eugene would still be ... she couldn't even dare to entertain the thought.

Men and women clamour over him like insects. They cut off his clothes, exposing his now terrifyingly still beautiful body to the cold night. They covered his face with apparatus that was more likely invented for sucking life out of him than resuscitating him. They were saying dark phrases that she could not fully understand.

"He's not breathing."

"I can't find a pulse."

"He lost a lot of blood."

"Give him everything."

In just seconds, they bundled him up in their machines and things, and he was taken away from her. And he was gone, just like that. As if he had never existed.

As that happened, another group of people with machines of flashing lights and machines that they talk into began to cross the boundary set by the group of healers, and they clawed their way to her, pushing their metal sticks into her face and watching her with their machines with glass eyes.

"Leave me alone!" She screamed. Because they were asking her if she shot him, if she killed him and why. Truth was, it was true that SHE brought whatever that happened to him. Nothing like this would have happened to him if he hadn't met her. Again, Mother's words rang true even though Mother was gone.

_If you ever go outside, Rapunzel, you will hurt people_. _Do you want people to die just because you cannot control your imagination?_

Even in death, Mother was right.

"He was my friend!" She said.

As she was overwhelmed by the savageness of curiosity, she was rescued by another group of people, the law enforcers. They asked cold questions. They picked up Mother's gun which was left on the concrete floor before she jumped into the sea.

"May I see your identification please?" One of the law enforcers asked her.

"What?" Rapunzel replied in horror.

In a second, she knew that her life had ended with Eugene's. She had no evidence to prove that she exists. She had no identification. She did not exist in the system created by these people. If Mother had it and kept it for her, it would be a long and outlandish story she had to tell to these people.

"ID please."

"I don't have any," she said. Maybe for once, the truth will set her free.

She was wrong.

"Maybe she's an illegal," one of the men in uniform said.

"Naaht, she seems local to me. And in the strange get up from Medieval Weekend as well. She's local alright, but something ain't right about her."

She was escorted into the law enforcer's vehicle. Like a living dead, Rapunzel complied. She was not handcuffed for she had no resistance to offer.

The shock wore off during the ride. Tears began to flow freely from her face. She remembered everything. From the moment she laid eyes on him years ago when he started working at the Chinese eatery. He was only a shape, a form. When they met again at the Tower in Grimmney Amusement Park, she formed negative opinions about him. But he let her prove that she was not made of evil. He made her know she had a choice to do good. And he proved to himself that he could do good by standing up to her craft knife-wielding mother in an attempt to protect her, a complete stranger. When he broke into Mother's apartment, she heard him speak, learnt of the highs and lows in his breaths and spoken words. He became alive. And then their journey began.

He attended to her needs. He was patient even though he was preoccupied with threatening thoughts. He was the kind host. He rose to the occasion of making her Medieval Weekend an experience to remember. He had nothing to impress her with. He had nothing shiny and valuable but his wit, his kindness and his goodness.

_The A to Z of First Aid and Family Health_ had mentioned the five stages of grief. Denial. Anger. Bargaining. Depression. Acceptance.

Where was she? She had tried to revive him with her 'witchery'. She was in denial. She was angry at herself. Blaming herself for this mess, blaming him even to ever meet her. She had bargained with Mother, and at the moment bargaining was only to ease her conscience. He had set her free. He wouldn't live to see her die in Mother's psychotic clutches.

Depression? If there is deeper sadness than this, she wouldn't know. She had accepted their final separation when they took him away.

But she knew this vicious cycle would repeat endlessly as long as she drew breath. The stages were driving her insane. Her only protection was the belief that she knew he wouldn't want her to go insane.

_I'm sorry Eugene, I'm so sorry._

She whispered to her own reflection on the glass window of the police patrol car.

The ride to wherever the law enforcers were taking her was the longest ride in the longest night of her life.


	30. From the Throne Room or BerZerkTV

**Author's Note: **Finally, I'm the proud of owner of the 'Tangled' DVD**. **Welcome new reviewer** Wolfram-and-Hart-Sauron. Mrs. Naara, **the book does exist. However, I might have added in a few of my own chapters into it. Haha**. Romance and Musical, Faith Rivens, An Unknown Foreign Beauty, Wicked Song **– I don't know! In a real world, will that kind of miracle happen?** PampleMousse07 – **about the chapters, there might be some change. Things are getting too complicated to be rushed.

**From the Throne Room**

It was half past midnight when the last of the lanterns reached the rigging they put in the river. From the seventh floor of the Burns Building, the light looked brilliant in the dark. If Algernon Kingsley did not plan for the event himself, along with his wife, Anna, he wouldn't know what the source of such beautiful display was. They could be fire, or lighting bugs, or really bright streetlights. Soon, when all the lights go out, a group of student volunteers would clear the water of the lanterns. The paper would be separated from the thin wire holding the lanterns up and both materials would be recycled.

Without a word, Anna Kingsley moved to her husband's side and touched his bearded face. Spoken words had many times failed them. They had failed to express the kind of regret they kept in their hearts. The regret of not being careful enough, not being watchful enough and for being too trusting of the good in people. Algernon touched his wife's hand. He closed his eyes and heaved a deep breath.

People always say that in the end, people should let go of ones they have lost. But he couldn't, and he wouldn't. He would hang on to her daughter Rachel, ingrain her in his memory, write about her, talk about her, celebrate her birth and loss, obsess about her in all forms of obsession known to man.

He would live the memory of his missing daughter everyday of his life.

And that was the reason why they both don't feel at home in their sprawling bungalow in the better part of Corona. Their life, fulfilled with work and obsession had more meaning in their adjoined offices in the Burns Building than in their empty, lifeless, joyless house. There are things that even romantic love and faithfulness between couples could not reconcile. It was the loss of a child. Especially when the story had no end. Death brought a body to be buried. But the mystery of the missing was even more painful than the death of a loved one. Human understanding always needed an answer to a question. Human understanding always seeks for the end of a story. Human understanding could not take an ending that offered no answer. The mind needs closure by seeing something, a body, a burial to attend.

The disappearance of a loved one was probably one of the worst, if not really the worst ordeal one could ever experience in his or her life on earth.

"Everything went well. And that is good enough, dear," Anna comforted her mourning husband.

"Yes."

Algernon took a deep breath and shook his head, shaking of his melancholy as if it was some kind of a hat or a fly buzzing around his head.

"Do you mind if I turn on the TV? I want to watch this before we drive home. I might miss it if I don't watch it now."

Algernon Kingsley turned on the television and to his wife's chagrin, had the TV set to the channel 293, BerZerkTV.

"I cannot believe you watch this," Anna teased in disbelief. For her, BerzerkTV, the new station only showed tasteless news, purely for the purpose of inciting excitement and curiosity rather than revealing the truth.

"This station shows a new breed of journalism, where news became fiction, and fiction became news," Algernon began spouting his ideas for the next lecture.

"So, you would rather have truth embellished compared to its neutral form?"

"Do you believe all news is neutral? They are not. The news always reflects the point of view of the people who broadcast it."

"Yes. But the least they can do is not to camouflage truth to their outrageous taste."

"At least they are not hiding that intention. They know we know that they broadcast news for entertainment. Did you watch that segment about the war veteran who is now a homeless man? Who wants that kind of truth? But BerZerkTV showed it. For better or for worse."

Something caught Anna Kingsley's eyes as her husband was passionately talking about this new broadcasting sensation, which she believed would disappear as quickly as it had reached its popularity. He was taking a cup from the coffee maker.

"Hey, Al, shush," she said.

"I told you you'll get hooked too," Algernon said laughing.

Soon the two of them were standing in front of the flat screen wall-mounted set. As usual, BerZerkTV had a claustrophobic presentation. There was no formal newscaster but an in-situ journalist-news scavenger who spoke on and off camera.

_College student shot dead by cult-member girlfriend._ The news title moved across the screen. An excited and overdramatic voice accompanied the chaos the station called news visuals.

"A student of the Corona University was found dead of gunshot wounds at the Pier early this morning. An anonymous call had alerted the emergency medical team and the police of the incident at the Pier. The suspected shooter, a female of about eighteen, had no identification on her and was unable to give any reliable information regarding herself. She is now in police custody."

An ID mug shot appeared on the screen showing a very photogenic young man with longish brown hair, thick and long eyebrows, deep brown eyes and perfectly shaped nose.

"Hey, that's the student in my journalism class," Algernon whispered hoarsely.

"Eugene Fitzherbert?" Algernon asked in bafflement when he saw the name on the TV screen.

"I thought his name is Flynnigan Rider."

But Anna was concerned about something else because she saw something that her husband did not. The girl with the completely shaven head in lavender coloured dress being harassed by the news scavenger and being pulled away by the police.

"That's the girl who won the slogan contest," she said quietly, terror in her eyes.

"Rapunzel Bathory," Algernon said. He remembered the name he announced earlier today. He also remembered the name Bathory and the brief encounter with the manuscript 'Darker Ever After'.

"Gothel Bathory is her mother," Anna whispered.

"But Gothel Bathory wasn't pregnant when we met her eighteen years ago," Algernon said.

"I was."

"Maybe she's adopted."

A mug shot, a very awkward one the bald-headed girl appeared on the screen as BerZerkTV painted her as a suspect in the shooting for the simple fact that only she was there on the scene and she had failed to produce any reference to her identity.

"Freeze that," Anna said to her husband who was holding the remote control as always.

Algernon did just that. They both stared at the frozen image.

"Look at her," Anna said.

The couple took in the large green eyes, the small nose and the pursed lips. They turned to the seventeen age-progression photos on the wall. It was amazing how a person's face only change on the outset, the hair, the cheeks, the neck. But the T zone of their faces, the eyes, nose and mouth, only enlarge according to age, but never actually change in form and attributes.

"Oh my God," Algernon breathed out.


	31. A Deal for the Dearly Departed

Author's Note: **Romance and Musical, Wicked Song** - That is a good point. **Mrs. Naara** – I know you like the hobo dude. I do too. **PampleMousse70** – I hope you'll keep reading since this is WAY pass the planned chapters. **An Unknown Foreign Beauty** – if you find some medic terms incorrect, tell me. All weaknesses of institution & characters in this story are mine & not the institutions' and the people who work for them. **Wolfram-and -Hart-Sauron** - Stay with me till the bitter end.

**A Deal for the Dearly Departed**

She didn't know how long she had been in the room. Rapunzel had been sitting in the dim-lighted square walls the moment she was brought to the police station. She sat with her back resting on back of a wooden chair and her hands were curled into fists in her lap. A few times, her head had lolled as she felt into deep, sudden sleep. She didn't mean to. She was too much in grief to properly sleep. Her mind must have experienced shut down during such early morning hours. A sandwich and a cup of cold water were untouched. A mild-mannered man, a detective she was told, had been talking to her. He had been asking about her personal details and her life's story. Her name, her address, and the truth of what had happened three hours ago. He was nicer, more civil than the officers who had had brought her in. And she told him everything. He seemed to believe her but he did not let her go. She had her toilet breaks as she requested, but escorted all the time. The detective had made her feel not threatened. But he had forgotten that she was cold. He had taken away Eugene's army green hoodie from her and she was left with her unprotected extremity in the cold room. And her bloody woollen scarf was last seen taken by the police. She was cold inside out. Eugene would never have forgotten that. He would have done something to ease the cold.

She knew why they had taken away the hoodie. They were looking for gunshot residue and they would not find that on it. And then, they would let her go. But where would she head out to after all these? She was no longer a minor. She was already eighteen. She had come of age. She was a responsible and independent member of the society.

There was suffocation in Rapunzel's chest. The suffocation was caused by not being able to predict what was going to happen next. But the terrible suffocation was not able to fill the void in her soul, the empty place left by Eugene. It was strange how an encounter so brief could leave an imprint so deep. Rapunzel realised that it was because of the manner in which they have met and journeyed together and were so cruelly parted had revealed the very core of their souls to each other.

The door opened. The kind, civil-mannered detective entered the room.

"I'm sorry that we have kept you here. We're through with the investigation. And we have no reason to detain you. You're free to go."

Rapunzel looked up and her mind was racing. As much as she wanted to get out of the place she had no idea where should she head to. She was thinking that maybe if someone could send her back to Mother's apartment and force the door open. Once she was inside, she would be able to plan her next course of action. She would tear down the place to find documents of her birth and identifications, if Mother had kept them somewhere. Then she would have to start anew. Get a job. Fend for herself. And then try to live free. Eugene's death would not be in vain. She was finally free, as he had intended.

A new feeling, a kind of anger came into her mind.

Oh Mother, why did you do this? Why did you do this to me? And why did you leave me like this? It was not Eugene's fault. He just got caught in the middle of this violent repression and outburst that was going to happen sooner or later.

The look of anxiety and loss in her eyes was too obvious that the detective began to look like he was responsible and at fault for something. He tried smiling to ease her worry.

"But before that, you have visitors," he said.

A man, very tall and large, with bushy brown beard and wearing glasses entered the room. Next to him was a petite and slim woman, with her dark brown hair tied up in a bun. She had green eyes, a small nose and mouth. Never forgetting faces, Rapunzel recognised them at once. It was the Vice Chancellor Algernon Kingsley and his writer wife, Anna. They were from the University. They were going to ask about Eugene, she thought. She hugged herself, in cold of temperature and also in desolation. She wanted to cry.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it to happen."

"Of course not, Rapunzel. Of course not, " Anna Kingsley responded.

Strangely, the woman held her and put Rapunzel's head on her shoulder.

"What are you going to do?" Rapunzel asked the woman.

"We need to talk to you."

"I'm here."

The woman took a deep breath before she was able to say it.

"We ... have reasons to believe that you are our long-lost daughter."

"Huh," Rapunzel scoffed softly, as if she was hearing a made up story. Like cats growing horns or fishes surviving on land. It was impossible, Rapunzel thought. As tempting as it sounded, even in a split second after it was mentioned, Rapunzel knew that it was impossible. And what was the point after all? Eugene was already gone. Sure, it would eliminate the problem of her having nowhere to go and no one to help her for the next few hours, but after that? She knew that it wasn't going to be easy. These people, the Vice Chancellor and his wife were very smart people. They were not going to just take her in. They would make her prove it. They would make her take a paternity test. And then they would be disappointed, leave her and continue with their search. And she would have to follow through her own plan to continue living.

But Rapunzel did have one thing she could gain from the encounter with the royal couple of the academic world.

"Then I would ask you to do one thing before you determine whether I am truly who you think I am, no matter what the result to this assumption of yours," Rapunzel said, making another deal.

"What is it?"

"Whatever the result to this endeavour of yours, madam, sir, you must take me to see Flynnigan Rider."

She used the name as that is the name Eugene was known to the world, probably the name known to his teachers as well.

"But he's, he's -."

"Dead, I know. Take me to see him. And you will arrange that he will get a proper burial as he had no one to claim him," Rapunzel said quietly, remembering how strange that a homeless man could own a cell phone while Eugene had none. That showed how lonesome and disowned Eugene Fitzherbert was.

"Yes, we will," Algernon Kingsley agreed in resignation.

"Promise?"

"Promise," the couple responded in unison.

"You can swab the inside of my cheek now," Rapunzel said freely and opened her mouth.

Embarrassed but finding Rapunzel's straightforwardness liberating, the woman swabbed the inside of her cheek with a cotton bud which she then put inside a beaker.

"Thank you."

"Now, good sir, madam, please take me to where they keep the unclaimed and the lonesome departed."


	32. The Morgue

**Author's Note:** TGIF! You don't know how much I want to finish this thing. I've been slacking at work and at home too that people are complaining. A few more chapters, people. So bear with me. **Figurly**-thank you for leaving a review. **An Unknown Foreign Beauty** – you're a picky reader, so difficult to satisfy!

**The Morgue**

Algernon Kingsley liked the shaven-headed girl instantly, daughter or not. There was a certain streetwise attitude about her. And how she remained alert and sceptical through everything. He knew she had been through hell and would do anything to get a reprieve, a break, but she was realistic. Algernon could guess that the girl he and his wife believed to be their missing daughter had been through a lot of disappointments and she had learnt to deal with them. Deep in his heart, he knew that they had found her, but he was afraid that if he was not subtle about it, she would be taken away promptly and swiftly from them. Just as he thought long ago that everything was perfect.

And that moment ended.

Algernon tried to picture the childhood and adolescent that she was robbed from and suddenly when they found her, she was already a grown woman, complete with a man by her side. Or _was _with a man by her side. To any father with a daughter growing into adulthood, the thought of a 'wolf' stealing his daughter right under his nose is deplorable. But in this case, to see her separated from her Intended that caused her so much pain was hurting him too. Algernon couldn't think of what kind of relationship Rapunzel had with Flynnigan Rider but he sensed that it was deep and extraordinary, thus that led them to their violent separation.

_Like fire and powder. Which as they kissed, consume._

In a different, better circumstance Algernon Kingsley would have understood the attraction. Flynnigan Rider was popular with the women in the faculty, students and teachers alike. It was that combination of dark, dashing good looks, impeccable sense of style and his wit. And also the kind of thinking he had produced so far. But then, Fate was not kind.

_I'm gonna miss that kid_, Algernon thought.

The drive to the Corona General was silent except for the perfunctory questions regarding Rapunzel's need to eat or drink. But she wouldn't have any. His wife had given Rapunzel her gingham scarf so she could drape it around her neck. Whoever this Gothel woman was, frustrated writer or murderer-psycho, she had pulled all the stops with the Spartan haircut. But Algernon understood why she did so. No amount of age-progression photo of Rachel would make people recognise the girl even if she escaped the woman's imprisonment. If it wasn't for BerZerkTV and the connections they made of the past with the present, Rapunzel still would have been lost. At first look, it would have been difficult to make the connection between the photos and the girl, Rapunzel. But the coincidences were too glaring. Thus, making them looked deeper and made the connections.

After some dealings with the front desk, the three were ushered to the Morgue. It was amazing how being a former teacher in secondary and tertiary levels to half of the hospital staff could do. Thankfully, both Algernon and Anna were wise, tactful and benevolent members of the teaching staff whom the students were not embarrassed to call them as the better part of their alma mater.

"This is it, ," the morgue attendant, a former student said. He turned a key and pulled out a long slab from a shelved cabinet made of cold metal. Anna Kingsley squeezed Rapunzel's hand, but the girl asked to be let go and she stepped closer to the metal slab. The attendant pulled the white sheet covering the body.

Rapunzel saw his face and her knees buckled. She swayed as if she was hit by sudden gust of strong wind. Algernon held her shoulders.

"Ahh!" Rapunzel breathed viciously.

"Be strong, be strong," Anna Kingsley chanted softly.

Rapunzel tried standing but couldn't. The autopsy technician got her a chair and she sank into it.

"It's not him," she said, eyes wide with bafflement and a barely contained, sinful, guilt-ridden hope.

"What?" Algernon Kingsley said and moved closer to the slab. He saw it. He knew that Flynn Rider was too aesthetically pleasing in life that even death would not changed him so. And the man on the slab was not Flynn Rider, his final year journalism student. In an ordinary circumstance, he should be saying: _Damn! The moron dating my daughter is still alive_. But he wouldn't in this circumstance because he knew the girl needed him like she needed air, or at least, electricity or running water, like his wife needed him and he, her.

"Please check for Eugene Fitzherbert," Algernon Kingsley whispered to the attendant.

"No such name in here so far, Mr. Kingsley," the attendant replied and showed the tag attached to the body's toe. The name was spelt _Flannagan Ryder_. So, that was the cause of the mix up!

Algernon Kingsley turned to the two women.

"Damn the TV station. He might still be alive!" He exclaimed.

"Come on!" he said. With professional ambition and grand purpose he led his women to the front desk and checked for one Eugene Fitzherbert.

"Oh, the boy brought in for the gunshot wound," said the staff on duty. She had no idea that every word she said was like life and death sentence to the three people waiting in front of the counter.

"But he's still in surgery."

"Oh, thank God!" Anna Kingsley said as a short rattling gasp escaped Rapunzel's lips.

"He's been in there for five hours. Are you family?"

"Err, yes! I'm his teacher. But, yes, we're his family," Algernon answered.

"Good. Because this boy's got no one, it seems," the staff said and began working on her computer.

"I'm going to ask you for your contact details," she said. And as Algernon Kingsley revealed everything she began typing furiously.

"They're doing everything they can. You folks must hope for the best," the staff said as she continued typing into the computer.

"Eugene. He's alive," Rapunzel said and collapsed in tears into the nearest chair in the lobby.

"Hey, let's get you something to eat. There's nothing we can do for now. But we'll be here when the surgery's over," Anna Kingsley said.

"Let's go get something to eat," Algernon said. Anna touched Rapunzel's shoulder, urging her to gain strength.

Algernon was thankful that he had brought hope into someone's life in that early morning of a fateful autumn. Even if the girl was not his daughter, something good had turned out of this.

Maybe he could still read the Baroness Elizabeth Bathory dissertation after all. Because the boy Flynn Rider/ Eugene Fitzherbert had sent in his proposal and piqued his curiosity but never slake it by sending in the damn dissertation.

And then he got shot. What a prankster.

**Postscript:** **PampleMousse07, WickedSong, Romance and Musical, Mrs. Naara, Wolfram-Hart-and-Sauron** – I'm just teasing! Because I WUV you! (Channeling Gothel)


	33. Of Shrapnel and Other Matters

**Author's Note: Hi Readers**. This chapter is short-ish because I don't want to combine scenes. But an update is coming up shortly. Welcome new reviewers, **LifeByTheSea, dreamerdrawerwriter7, AerrowsGirl07, SparkleWolf2000. PampleMousse07, Romance and Musical, Mrs Naara, Wicked** **Song, An Unknown Foreign Beauty** – I know you guys have been waiting for that chapter!

**Author's Note 2:** Thanks for An Unknown Foreign Beauty and AIONFanNRCM for pointing out some errors for corrections. This chapter had undergone two rewrites. I welcome further corrections and will credit source.

**Of Shrapnel and Other Matters**

At the first light of a new day, a furious ringing of Algernon Kingsley's phone woke his cohort. His wife slept slumped on his shoulder and Rapunzel's head was in her lap. It was the number of the Corona General. The front desk told him to come to the lobby and to talk to a certain Dr. Bruiser.

Dr. Bruiser was still in his complete surgery get up. In a manner that was succinct and thoroughly professional, he explained the horror of mending Eugene Fitzherbert's mangled insides.

"He's stable. We've removed shrapnel from a major artery and his stomach. But he's to undergo two more surgeries to remove more shrapnel in the cavity when he is stronger."

Algernon saw the anxious look in his young ward's eyes and asked.

"Can we see him?"

"Yes, you can see him from the glass. He is in a very delicate condition right now. He'll be placed in intensive care until he completed his surgery and we'll see how we go from there. But visitation will be possible for the next of kin during that time. There are going to be times when the anaesthesia wears off and he will need someone to be there for him."

"What are his chances?"

Dr. Bruiser heaved his chest and expounded his honest thoughts.

"Actually, that he's made it this far is nothing short of a miracle. In ordinary circumstance it's impossible to survive this kind of injury. But he has a strong heart. So, we're banking on that and pray he'll make it through. As bad as it is, we're optimistic."

Dr. Bruiser led them to the room where Eugene was held. He was connected to so many machines that he looked overwhelmed and buried from the glass that separated Rapunzel from him. But she knew he is alive and that is enough for now. Algernon Kingsley thanked Dr. Bruiser for his efforts and the good doctor went on his way. The three stood in the hallway, at loss for words. Rapunzel was thinking of unfinished businesses. Algernon and Anna were thinking of making it easier for the girl. Anna broke the silence.

"That is good news."

"Is there anything that we can do for you?" Algernon asked Rapunzel.

"There's someone I must see at the Salvation Army second hand store."

"The shop will be closed for church. But it'll be open at noon. We'll go there then."

"Tell us what is it is."

"There's this elderly woman whom Eugene had promised to visit on Sunday. I just thought that she should know. I mean, he promised her."

"Of course."

The Kingsley couple brought Rapunzel home. Anna had her cleaned, changed and rested.

At noon, when the second hand store opened, Rapunzel came up to Miss Walker and told her the news about Eugene. The elderly woman's hand flew to her mouth, in shock and horror.

"Can I go and see him?" She shrieked in tears.

"The doctor said not until a month or so that he'll be able to have visitors. Because he had it pretty bad."

"Oh! The poor dear," Miss Walker sighed.

"But we'll inform you as soon as we get news from the hospital," Algernon Kingsley assured Miss Walker.

The two exchanged phone numbers.

The look on Rapunzel's face showed that she was filled with an immense sense of relief. And that relief it's not related to Eugene Fitzherbert's condition. It was something to do with Miss Walker and Eugene. Anna Kingsley knew that to Rapunzel, promises were meant to be kept. And her friend, Eugene wouldn't want an elderly woman worrying about his absence for the whole month while she was waiting. Because a lot could happen in a month.

Anna Kingsley knew that the whole month would be used up for waiting in general. Waiting for Eugene Fitzherbert. News from Corona General. News from the Lab. And then, there are arrangements with the landlord of Rapunzel's eighteen years' home. While they waited for a life hanging on a thread of destiny, the baggage of loss needed to be taken care of.

No one knew what to expect for sure. For once, plans could go no further than the length of twenty-four hours.

They would just live on, one day at a time.


	34. Of Brunettes and Dreams Found

Oh, my dear readers. For your patience and support, I present a gift of another update. I believe this is the chapter you all have been waiting for.

**Of Brunettes and Dreams Found**

Eugene

He was in so much pain that he was glad it all ended in complete and utter blackness. There was no memory, no light, no images, no thoughts, as he lost all perception. It was as if the darkness he was thrown into was solely created for him to rest, to forget the world that in it he was a poor player, who struts and frets on its stage.

But he didn't forget her. Because she was the last things he felt before he drifted away. She was water to him when he was the parched desert sand.

Rapunzel

The lines between her fingernails and skin were blackened with charcoal and pencil lead. Rapunzel was sketching Eugene's sleeping face. In her thick pad of drawing paper she had drawn him from memory. His stance and posture, his finely sculpted visage, the clothes he wore on the day they met. She had also finished a recreation of the photo them in the boat at the lanterns' release. When her hands and fingers got tired, she read the novel he brought her on that fateful day, 'My Charming Bandit'. The words in the novel had done something to her, piquing her imagination about his soul and his physique. She had been thinking about his body and the smooth plane of his abdomen being riddled with scars of every kind – the bullet wound and the surgery incisions. Tragic and painful as they were, but fascinating none the less.

Suddenly, she saw Eugene's eyelids flickered. She scooted closer to him and held his limp hand. She felt his fingers pressing into her palms.

"Eugene?" Rapunzel called his name. His eyes opened just barely.

"Rapunzel," he whispered, almost unheard.

"Eugene!"

Eugene

How long had he been out? Eugene asked himself. He had been in and out of consciousness many times but this is the most lucid he had ever been in a long time. Of course, his body felt like he had been beaten by twenty men but that didn't matter because he saw the girl of his dreams in front of his cloudy eyes. His sight improved as he tried focusing. How long had he been out? He asked himself again. It must have been quite a while since he could actually comprehend his surrounding with clarity other than the feeling he was between here and there because her head that used to be completely shaven had filled with a shock of dark brown hair. A surge of pleasant sensations filled the cockles of his being. He tried to speak and some form of words came out.

"Did I ever tell you I've got a thing for brunettes?" He said, a thin smile managed to lace his lips.

Rapunzel jumped on to the bed, and kissed him on the lips. The kiss that had been averted many times, he thought. It was playful and light. The force of her on him hurt but he was too affected by her warmth, her purity and her spontaneity that he reciprocated. She let go and looked into his eyes. Then she had a go at him one more time, this time grateful, passionate and deep.

His body was sore all over the place. But he didn't care. He held her and buried his face in her neck, savouring the fact that they were both here, on earth.

"Eugene!" She repeated his name under her breath, again and again.

"You saved my life, Rapunzel."

"How? No, I didn't have anything left for you that night."

Eugene showed her his arms. Somehow, Rapunzel's writings were still on his arms.

_Heal what has been hurt_

_Change the Fate's design_

_Save what has been lost_

_Bring back what once was MINE_

_What once was MINE._

"Oh, I don't know, Eugene. But if it is true, I'm glad that it brings me back to you."

"It seems that you are well, Fitzherbert?" A familiar voice interrupted their exchange of feelings.

"Barely. Dr. Kingsley?" Eugene breathed again, his head feeling very light. Why was his journalism teacher here? Bashfully, Rapunzel alighted from his bed and stood by him, her hand still in his.

"After the consequences of the night when you got yourself into, er, trouble," cleared his throat.

"My wife and I had done a paternity test on Rapunzel."

What? Eugene was baffled. He did not have reserves in his faculty to think of the ramifications.

"And we are pleased to announce that Rapunzel is our missing daughter Rachel Kingsley."

"What?" Eugene whispered hoarsely. He could see that Rapunzel could not utter a word. She had tears in her eyes. Rapunzel released his hand. She fell into Anna Kingsley's waiting wide open arms.

"When did you know?" Rapunzel sobbed on her mother's shoulder.

"Three weeks ago. But we wanted to wait for Eugene to get better," Anna Kingsley explained.

And then, Anna Kingsley touched his hand and held it tight.

"Thank you for what you have done for Rapunzel. You have brought our long lost daughter to us," Anna Kingsley said. She came closer and kissed him on the top of his head. He thought that his heart stopped beating.

"We owe you our lives."

"And you owe me a dissertation, Fitzherbert. You better get back on your feet quick and send in that dissertation."

"Yes, sir," he replied.

He looked at the three people forming the chain of greatest happiness known to the human heart. He smiled. Rapunzel had found her family. He couldn't be happier.

He closed his eyes. Something had seeped into his body. He was tired. Tired but triumphant.

Rapunzel

"Eugene? Eugene?" Rapunzel panicked when he saw Eugene lost his consciousness.

"Oh, he's just falling back into sleep. It's the morphine. Or he won't be able to withstand the pain he's in," a nurse who entered the room right on time said. She wrote something on a clipboard that she took from the foot of his bed.

Rapunzel saw the steady rise and fall of his chest. She heaved a sigh of relief.

How could things be so perfect? Subtlety, subtlety, she repeated. She did not want him taken away from her just because she was too proud, or too gloating in her new found joy.

She took the pen clipped to the chart at the foot of the bed. She uncapped it and began writing on his still right arm. And then the same sentence was repeated on hers.

_And we're living happily ever after._

**Postcript:** Thank you to **An Unknown Foreign Beauty** for PMing me my errors so I could correct them discreetly. She said she loves the story so much that she wants it to be perfect. Augh! And this is not the final chapter yet.


	35. Traces of the Past

**Author's Note: **Wow! Responses are overwhelming. I've got new reviewers as well. I will credit you guys in the ensuing closing chapters. Another gift for your support. A chapter on unattainable closure.

**Traces of the Past**

A moving van was parked in front of the apartment block aptly named 'The Tower'. A young man was hurriedly coming out of the Chinese eatery across the street. He ran his fingers through his dark brown hair, trying to make his looks presentable. He smelled his shirt and was pleased that it didn't smell of herb-braised ducks. He ran across the street towards the apartment block. When he saw the girl waiting on the doorsteps, he called her.

"Rapunzel!"

"Eugene!" The girl with short brown hair replied excitedly.

He ran up to her and kissed her deeply on her lips.

"Thank you for doing this," the girl, Rapunzel said. The young man, Eugene had asked her if she preferred to be called Rachel, the name given by her true parents, but she said she preferred the name that she was first known to him. He understood, because it was not easy to escape one's past. He knew, because he had tried and the past never let him go. In fact, the harder he tried, the more tenacious it hung on its tentacles on him.

"Let's do this," Eugene said.

Rapunzel's hands shook as she tried opening the lock on the door of Gothel's apartment. Eugene took the key from her trembling fingers and opened the lock for her.

A burst of old-smelling air greeted them as they entered the darkly furnished room. There were a few ornate-looking furnitures and the hardwood floor was covered with rugs. There were a writing table paired with a chair in the living room. In front of the pair was an old armchair. Eugene guessed that it was the place where Rapunzel wrote Gothel her good luck charms, or spells or incantations.

Rapunzel headed straight for the studio. He could see that she was avoiding seeing things that would remind her of her life in the apartment. She pushed the studio door open.

"Seems just like yesterday," Eugene said, almost like he was in a dream.

"It could have been yesterday, if it wasn't for the Pier incident," Rapunzel replied.

"Are you complaining, Punzie, about the way we met?" Eugene pouted.

"No, I'm complaining about how you left me thinking that you're gone," Rapunzel said quietly.

Eugene saw sadness in her eyes and he retreated from his teasing.

"I couldn't help it. Believe me, if I could, I wouldn't let you," he said and squeezed her hand. He held her shoulder and gently nudged her to lean on him.

"C'mon. Let's see some of the stuff you want to take from this place," Eugene said cheerfully.

"This whole room actually," Rapunzel said, gesturing to the easels, finished paintings on canvas and materials on the floor and shelves.

"Your wish is my command," Eugene started heaving the easels to his broad shoulders and carrying them down to the landing.

"No! It has been only over two months after the Pier. You can't lift heavy things," Rapunzel said, seeing that Eugene had taken an easel in his hand.

"I can carry a piece of wood. Anyway, I need the exercise. Mr. Chang only allowed me to take orders."

"Eugene, I said, no!" Rapunzel shrieked, taking away the easel from his hand. But he insisted. Then he paused in the midst of action.

"Actually, there's a sharp jab underneath near my ribs," Eugene stopped and breathed deeply. He was twisting his face.

"Argh! Ah!" Eugene gasped and started to feel for the walls.

"Eugene!" Rapunzel pleaded in horror.

"I'm joking, Rapunzel. I'm fine!" Eugene straightened his body and carried on with his task.

Rapunzel slapped him on his shoulders.

"Ouch!"

"Don't you ever do that again!"

"You should see the look on your face because you look –"

"Stop!"

"OK."

After an hour, they have got the moving truck loaded. Actually, the movers took most of the stuff. Rapunzel only allowed Eugene to carry her paint brushes.

"Are you sure you don't have any of your enchanted writing tools left somewhere in Gothel's hiding?"

"There aren't any more, I'm sure. Why did you think Mother jumped into the waves if she had another?"

"I wonder how did she get the idea? And where did she get all those stuff? I mean, the pen and the book. It's amazing how so much suffering can be caused by such small and trivial things. It was just super creepy."

"She got them from a man she called Dr. Facilier."

"Dr. Facilier? Dr? _Doctor_?" Eugene repeated incredulously.

"I don't know. It's weird, isn't it? Why would someone selling enchantments and tools of sorcery be called a doctor? I mean, the doctors I know are people who treat patients and people like my father, who teach at the University."

"Have you ever seen this Dr. Facilier person?"

"No, she always talked to him on the phone. I eavesdropped sometimes. Sometimes she let me on to it. Just to scare me, I guess."

"I don't get it as well. But let me ease your fretting. He might not even exist. What if she created this Dr. Facilier character to make you believe that you are cursed. Trust me, Rapunzel, this thing is at an end," Eugene said enthusiastically, meaning every word that he said.

"I don't know. I have a feeling that this is not over yet."

"Of course, you don't. They haven't found her body. You haven't had your closure yet."

"Closure?"

"A sense of completion especially after something bad happened to you. Sometimes you feel that you want to talk to the person who've done you wrong. Sometimes you need to see a body or bury the departed loved one or a hated loved one," Eugene explained the best he could, drawing from his own experience. He could see that Rapunzel understood what he meant.

"I didn't hate Mother. Until she hurt you."

"I TOTALLY understand that. Did I ever tell you that it hurt like crazy? Sheesh. Have mercy, for Fitzherbert's sake," he was babbling again.

Then she turned to him, eyes imploring.

"What about you, Eugene?" She asked.

"Who? Me?"

"Have you gotten your closure?"

"I'm sorry, Baldie. But I don't do closure."

Rapunzel pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes. She was giving him that look. The look when he teased her, made lame jokes, or acted like he was hurting. Man, she was making him do it. He breathed deeply.

"I think my kind of closure is impossible to have. "

"Hmm?" She stared at him encouragingly. Eugene looked at his shoes and then, his brown eyes looked into a past so clouded.

"I want so much to talk to my parents. I want to ask them why did they leave. I'm not angry or anything, but I need to know, you know? I mean, what happened, happened. But I need to know why. And there were things I did wrong when I knew no better. They were people I hurt. I got that closure when the bullet hit me. I feel that I deserved that."

Rapunzel stayed quiet long after he finished. Then she said slowly, in resignation.

"Well, we're one and the same."

Eugene nodded and then looked at the inside of the truck before the movers closed it.

"You really could already open a gallery! Why don't you talk to your father about it? Maybe he could book a wing of a building in the University for your paintings!"

"I'm not going to do that, Eugene. I'm going to EARN a wing for my art."

"What? You're not going to take up creative writing?"

"No, it's too risky. Anyway, Mother made writing a chore for me. A bad one. Painting is my first love. Never had done me or anyone any harm," Rapunzel said, pursing her lips and shrugging.

"Hey, it's your life," Eugene held up his hands, surrendering.

"Well, this is it," Rapunzel turned to face the Apartment.

"Good bye, Mother," she whispered.

Eugene hugged her sideways and led her away from her now abandoned prison.

Postcript: This chapter had undergone a rewrite based on medical related information given by **An Unknown Foreign Beauty.**


	36. The Pier Part 2

**Romance and Musical** – Yay. You noticed the Macbeth reference! **Wicked Song** – About 2/ 3 more. I know I've been wanting to end it since chapter 30, but there are so many loose ends. But I'll end it, I promise. **Holly-Batali** – The reviewers support keeps me going fast. **Howlsatthemoon** – I understand your feelings. A long story goes downhill all the time. Some never gets finished. Some takes too long an update that the reader have forgotten what the story is about and have to read it all over again. Sometimes the stories got mixed up. But you put DEA next to WYDK – that is something! I'm grateful that you finally reviewed. **Mrs. Naara** – Sorry to disappoint you. It's not the ending yet. Stay with me, Eugene, er, Naara! But it will end. **Faith Rivens, PampleMousse07, Wolfram-and-Hart-Sauron **– It's not yet over. But if you want it to end at Chapter 34, it's OK. That'll be a happy ending. Dun dun dun. **ZelFitzherbert **– I was always thinking what time DEA will show up on the other side of the world. I'm glad that it made your mornings better, if it's not already great. Thanks for the review. **An Unknown Foreign Beauty **– I was ranting about MOM and forgot to tell you that I'd encourage you to write a sequel. Your medical knowledge had been very helpful and I love the fact that you PMed me about my errors. And no sequels for me. I'm just gonna be a good FF reader after this. **Aerrows-Girl07-** Being a working gal myself I understand the need for entertainment and I'm glad that I made your day and you made my day by reviewing. **SWACGleek Freak** – A sequel? You gotta be kidding me!

Just to warn you guys that this chapter is only 773 words long.

**The Pier (Part 2)**

Three men waiting in a car watched the chaos at the Pier from a safe distance. After two minutes, an ambulance left the scene. Thirty minutes later, a police car drove away. Two more police cars stayed at the Pier, as if waiting for something. The men in the car were guessing the forensics team or the divers. The police always needed divers at the Pier.

"This wouldn't happen if I hadn't had to bail you two morons from jail," seethed one of the men, the tall, thin, dark one. He was dressed in leather shirt and pants, with a long black coat. He had a black beret on and was wearing circular framed spectacles. He was tapping the floor of the car with his ornamented walking stick. His words were directed to the other two men, Horace and Pollock Stabbingtons, large and tall they were, but clearly in subordination to the latter.

"Sorry, Doc! We didn't know what happened. Everything was going according to plan and suddenly the guards were on us," one of the two men offered an explanation. But the tall man in beret and spectacles, Doctor Facilier was not listening. 

"Shush!" The doctor signalled. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply.

"To the water! To the water!"He commanded.

"We can't go there! The police are all over the place!" Pollock exclaimed incredulously.

"To the other edge! I will summon the currents to bring her there."

"Her?"

"Quick! Drive to the Northern Pier!"

Horace started the engine and drove.

When they reached the Northern Pier, the doctor strode to the edge of the platform. He stood at the edge and asked for one of the men to hold out his hand to him. Pollock did it. Dr. Facilier _unsheathed _his walking stick, which turned out to be slim sword in a wooden sheath. With one swish of the blade of his walking stick on Pollock's outstretched palm, he got the blood that he needed to be slivered on an amulet in his hand. He chanted an incantation.

_Deadly waves of the sea_

_Bring the dead to me._

Something shook in the dark waters.

"What?" Pollock and Horace gasped. They saw dark hands emerging from the water, as if the waves were made of hands and within the cradle of their rotting flesh, was the body of a woman dressed in heavy floating attire. Her face was white and blue, her eyes and mouth were open. The dark hands of the waves carried the woman to the edge of the water till it reached the part where there was a vertical metal ladder from under the water leading up to the platform.

"Quick! Take her!" Facilier ordered the Stabbingtons. Pollock climbed down the ladder and held the body by the shoulders. With great effort, he pulled the body up. Horace took the body from Pollock as he reached the top part of the ladder. They laid the body on the concrete.

"It's her! It's the old lady who was looking for her daughter," Pollock exclaimed.

Dr. Facilier's face twisted angrily. He wasn't thinking about pity or vengeance. He was thinking of an opportunity lost. The girl with the reality-bending power over the written words had escaped both the Stabbingtons and Gothel, his foolish ally. Worse, the only link he had on the girl, Gothel herself, is dead.

"She's been betrayed. We must right the wrong. You two will be paid handsomely if you assist me in reuniting this woman with her missing daughter," said Dr. Facilier, a plan quickly unfolding in his mind.

"But she's already dead!" Horace exclaimed.

"That will not be a problem if she knew someone with friends on the other side," Dr. Facilier said, stroking his chin.

"And if we don't?" Quite stupidly, Pollock asked.

"You're going to suffer a fate worse than death. Do you dare to decline someone who has the power to bring back the dead?"

The two went quiet, until Horace spoke again.

"So, we're guessing that you're going to stay in Corona City for a while?"

"Make that a semester. Gentlemen, I have landed myself a teaching gig at the University."

"What?"

"I have a doctorate anyway," Dr. Facilier said as he swung his sheathed walking stick cum sword.

"In what?"

"Ethnic Mysticism. That is an important branch in the study of cultural anthropology. But you two won't know anything about it, I presume. What a pity."

The woman's cold body was put in the trunk and the car sped into the night. The team of divers arrived a few minutes later after the body they were going to search for was well out of reach.


	37. Say Good Bye and Let Go

**Author's Note: Enjoy, you lovely people!**

**Say Good Bye and Let Go**

Eugene touched Rapunzel's forlorn face as they walked away from the apartment block.

"Hey, are you OK?" He asked her.

"Uh, I'm just... sorry."

"Sorry for what?"

"Sorry for the way things turned out for Mother. I wished that it didn't end like it did."

"Some things, Punzie, you just have to let go. Some things are beyond your control."

Rapunzel looked at Eugene and with some effort erased the lines on her face.

"You're right – So! What are you doing after this?"

"I'm gonna see Miss Walker. The last time I saw her was at the hospital, believe it or not."

"Can I come?"

"Of course! I'd be happy if you do."

Miss Walker's apartment block was just around the corner from the Chinese eatery where Eugene was working. This explains the frequency of visits that he was able to make to his former caregiver. Miss Walker welcomed them cheerfully even though the elderly woman was down with fever and cold.

"My favourite girl, Rapunzel. How is Eugene taking care of you?" Miss Walker took Rapunzel in her arms and hugged her.

"He's doing just fine, Miss Walker. I think he needs to take care of himself better than he takes care of me,"

"That is Eugene," Miss Walker said laughing.

Upon entering, the two of them were surprised to see the floor was occupied with boxes of things and the walls were already bare.

"What's up with the overzealous spring cleaning, Miss Walker?" Eugene asked uncomfortably. He was so used to the decor during his visits, for tea and sometimes for a nap during work break that the barrenness was making his heart constrict.

"I'm going to a retirement home, Eugene," Miss Walker said happily, judging by the tone of her voice.

"What? When?" Eugene asked, clearly in panic.

"Tomorrow, the home will pick me up and so will begin a new chapter of my life."

"But why?"

"Look at me Eugene. I won't lie to myself. I'm old and alone. My health is failing. Anyway, that is where I invested my money. Solely for my retirement, many, many years ago. For tomorrow, and the days after, until God knows when," Miss Walker explained, her voice trailing off as she went to the kitchen to prepare some tea.

"But, but," Eugene stammered.

"If I remember correctly, you're going to graduate at the end of the year," Miss Walker asked from the kitchen.

"Umm, yes –"Eugene said hesitantly, at the same time thinking of the dissertation in his bag, which needed to be sent to the Vice Chancellor.

"What are your plans after that?"Miss Walker asked.

"Nothing, no plans," Eugene avoided the question.

"Do you know anything about Eugene's plan, Rapunzel?" Miss Walker asked Rapunzel as she was familiar with all of Eugene's evasive tactics.

"Just bits and pieces. He told me once, that he's going to leave the city upon graduation," Rapunzel said, remembering the time they spent together in the Corona University Library.

"That is SO Eugene," Miss Walker sighed.

"Always wanting to be the one leaving, but never be the one left behind. He has a runaway heart. He's really bad at good byes. I remember the day when he had to leave the Children of Magdalene Orphanage. He wouldn't see me, but he left me a -"

"Miss Walker, please..." Eugene begged, "at least don't tell Rapunzel while I'm still standing here."

"Oh Eugene, isn't it fun to have a childhood filled with people and friends?" Rapunzel said to him, her eyes showing that she was genuinely amused by the story that Miss Walker was about to tell.

"Is there trash that I can take out?" Eugene asked, shifting uncomfortably on his feet as Rapunzel seated herself on a chair.

"Do the doctors allow you to take out rubbish for old ladies?" Miss Walker came in with a filled tray.

"I can take out the trash, Miss Walker," Eugene said as he headed into the kitchen. When he got the trash bag and was walking to the door, he saw the two ladies were whispering to each other over their tea and cupcakes.

"I'll leave you two ladies to gossip about me," he mumbled and made his exit.

Eugene went outside and dumped the trash in the bin. He stood in front of Miss Walker's apartment block. He closed his eyes and sighed heavily. Miss Walker was right. He was not good at good byes. He always had wanted to be the one leaving but never the one being left. But that was the time when he got no one. Now, things had changed. Would he be a better person at letting others go and he himself would learn to stay and be constant and reliable for once?

A dark glassed limousine stopped with a screeching sound at the curb. Two men in black coats and sunglasses came out of it. Eugene was about to ignore them and walk back into the apartment when the two men let their coats open slightly and he could see that they had guns on their persons.

"Get in, Rider," one of them said.

And Eugene had had enough of guns. He certainly wouldn't take any risk when his two women were nearby. He got into the car.

Inside, a female of about his age was waiting. She had long, night black hair. He couldn't see her eyes as she hid them under dark glasses. She had legs up to her armpits which she had no intention of hiding under the short black skirt.

"Mr. Rider? Or is it, Mr. Fitzherbert?" The woman said in a deep, husky, slightly accented voice. In ordinary circumstances, Flynn Rider would find her extremely attractive.

"You know who I am, regardless of my name," Eugene was in no mood for games. The woman was like she was carved out of marble and darkly beautiful, cold and feline. But his heart belonged to the one whose beauty is imperfectly human and filled with both warmth and light.

"Do you have the manuscript, _Life After Rachel_?"

"You are the one who wanted it? To the point of obsession?" Eugene asked angrily.

"My name is Julietta. My father wants it. He obsesses for it. He'd give anything for it, out of spite for his old enemy, Algernon Kingsley."

"Why are you in this, Julietta? This is your father's burden," Eugene asked her, controlling his voice from showing too much of his annoyance. But pity came up as more prominent and endearing to the woman.

"I'll do anything to get my father's love," she said with sadness in her voice. Eugene was reminded of the closure he needed. And he had come to terms that he just would never get it. The next logical step was of course, to let go. And so should Julietta.

"Julietta, tell your father that he will not hurt Algernon Kingsley by stealing the manuscript. The book about Rachel is already published. Algernon Kingsley had already suffered eighteen years and consider that as retribution for WHATEVER he had done to your father. And you are a beautiful woman, with both talent and depth; you must free yourself from this self-imposed imprisonment of trying to impress your father by hunting for his unrealistic obsessions."

Words flowed freely from Eugene as he think of ways to get out of the car, unhurt. He might have quoted some sentences from his dissertation.

"Perhaps you can free me from my prison, Mr. Rider," the young woman said and took off her dark glasses. Eugene couldn't help to be mesmerised by her pale icy irises. But then, he felt the cold muzzle of a gun pointed to his gut.

"I heard that you freed a girl from hers."

Rapunzel aka Rachel Kingsley. Everyone who needed to know knew about the lost princess of the University's most prominent figure.

Eugene was thinking fast. He must not screw this up. He must let Miss Walker go safely to her retirement home before Corona can fall apart under the Mafia's reign of terror. He must get out of this car to see Rapunzel back to her father. Give him one more day to get everybody to safety and then let him deal with the consequences of his actions in the past.

"Maybe, I will," Eugene said as their faces came so close that he could smell her minty breath. Eugene gave her that look. She was almost mesmerised by the potential kiss from the attractive man's youthful non-smokers lips. As this was going on, Eugene touched the gun, and pointed it away slowly from his body and took it away from her hand. Instinct took over him; his old skills never left him. That sleight of hand. That magic of making things disappear. He tucked the gun in his pants' waist, hidden by his vest at his back.

"Maybe I will, Julietta."

Another lie had escaped his lips.

"Patience, Julietta," he said. She seemed compliant and was no longer planning to hurt him. Eugene made his get away from the car, smoothly, like a bandit hero who had just placated an angry lady-hunter with a promise of future pleasures. He had always managed to do that.

Except to Rapunzel. The last time he worked his smooth criminal way, a young woman took him hostage and had him shot by her momma. It was almost unreal it could be a joke.

The black limo drove away, leaving Eugene breathless and glad to be alive.

Damn, what is it with him and sheltered girls? He gushed.


	38. The Proposal

**Author's Note: PampleMousse07** – I'm glad I've made your day. **Mrs. Naara** – rule of drama, rule of drama, my dear. **Faith Rivens** – I know I'm overstaying my welcome but I gotta tie up the loose ends. **An Unknown Foreign Beauty** – I fear to answer your question because you can't wait till this thing finishes. I understand that feeling.

**The Proposal**

Someone touched his hand. It was Rapunzel. She had come out of the apartment block.

"Is something wrong, Eugene? You look spooked," she asked about the distracted look on his face. Eugene shook his head. Miss Walker who had walked out with Rapunzel looked at him through eyes which were drawn to slits. She seemed able to read him every time.

"Everything's fine. I'm fine," Eugene said, pulling his hoodie lower to cover half of his buttock.

"I guess this is good bye," Miss Walker said and hugged them both.

"We'll visit," Eugene promised her, not believing that he would ever say good bye to Miss Walker.

"Send me the wedding invitation when it is time," Miss Walker said and winked at Eugene.

"Ah!" Rapunzel let out a short exhalation of breath.

"We will," Eugene answered with a smile. And the former carer and ward drifted apart.

"Eugene!" Rapunzel said his name in a gasp.

"What? Do you think the idea of it happening totally impossible?" Eugene spoke through a lopsided smile.

"No. It's just – it's too early to be thinking about it," Rapunzel replied, with creases on her forehead.

"Nothing is ever too early to be thought about," Eugene reminded her.

"So, you're saying?"

"I'm thinking about it. Just so hoping you will think about it too," Eugene said and nudged Rapunzel on her arm.

"Can I think about it, then?"

Eugene held Rapunzel by the hand and made her stop walking, so he could see her face clearly.

"So, here's food for your thought. Will you, ever, marry me, Rapunzel?"

"But my life hasn't even started yet. It had just begun, and I thank you for that."

"Thus the word 'ever'."

"I'll think about it, seriously."

"I'm not going to stay this way forever, you know. I'll get a proper job, buy a car, a house, fall in line..."

"I know. I'm just not ready yet."

"I understand. No pressure," Eugene said as he lifted his hand in good-natured resignation.

The bus ride to the University was silent. Rapunzel sat by the window while Eugene sat near the aisle. Their shoulders touched and they held hands but they said nothing. None minded that the other had his or her own thoughts.

The bus stopped at the University gate and they alighted from it to walk to the University compound.

"Where are you headed to, Punzie?" Eugene asked.

"I'm going to my father's office. He said he's got a colleague who wanted my opinion on ethnic mysticism."

"What a coincidence. I'm sending my dissertation to the VC. Hey, what do you know about Ethnic Mysticism? Isn't that way out of your interest?" Eugene said, his forehead lined with suspicion.

"Father wanted me to speak to an expert about my whole Mother-magic-curse experience. He thought it might help me readjust."

"If he said so," Eugene shrugged.

On the way to the Burns Building, they reached the Lawn.

"Wow, look at this place. The first time you brought me to the University and we had breakfast here."

"Yeah. I can't believe that was three months ago. Seemed like yesterday it happened."

They stood there reminiscing, each lost in thoughts. Eugene saw that she was very happy. Happier than she was the day he met her, as if a great burden had been lifted off her shoulders. He never wants to be a burden to her.

"Hey, Rapunzel. I'm sorry," he said suddenly.

"For what, Eugene?"

"For subtly proposing to you without anything to offer you."

"It's OK."

"Whatever your answer is going to be and whenever you're going to answer it, and if you're ever going to answer it, you will always be my dream."

"And you know that you are my dream too, Eugene. It's just that it's too early for promises, don't you think?"

Eugene held the back of her now resplendent head of dark brown hair and kissed her on the lips, softly like the touch of butterfly wings.

"You don't have to explain anything if you don't want to, ever."

"Thank you, Eugene. Hey. You're acting all weird today. Is something the matter?" Rapunzel asked and lifted her eyebrows suspiciously.

"Nothing! Everything's fine. Come, let's go to your dad's office."

The door to the Professor Kingsley office was unlocked. The Vice Chancellor never locked his room when he was working. Rapunzel knocked and opened it because she knew he was expecting her. Eugene followed close behind.

"Rapunzel, you're here!" The VC greeted.

It seemed that Rapunzel preferred the name she was known by for eighteen years than her given name, Rachel. Professor Kingsley was talking to a man whose face they couldn't see because he was facing the other way. The man was dressed in black. He was very thin and tall. He kept an ornamented walking stick on his lap while he was talking to the Vice Chancellor.

"This is Doctor F-" Professor Kingsley couldn't finish the sentence when the man threw dust that seemed to come from his wrist. In an instant, the Vice Chancellor slumped onto his chair, unconscious.

"Dad!" Rapunzel yelled in terror.

"Finally, Rapunzel!" The dark, tall man seethed in morbid excitement.

But whatever the man's assumption about Rapunzel was, by the look in his eyes, Eugene knew that the man did not expect Rapunzel to arrive with company. Eugene felt his back. He'd got the gun from the Mafia boss's daughter. The man had unsheathed his harmless looking walking stick and he revealed what it really was. A thin long sword. Beautiful and finely crafted but just as lethal anything sharp and pointed.

Eugene pushed Rapunzel behind him and came between the man he was sure could be no one else but the one he assumed as the imaginary Doctor Facilier. He had given her false reassurance and he was going to fix this thing. He withdrew the gun from under his vest.

"Bring it on!" He exhaled.


	39. Never Ever After

**Author's Note: **I was a little emotional when I wrote this. Will do dedications later, when the dust settles. I appreciate your patience.

**Never Ever After**

"Why look for these parallel universes that we can't touch? Because they hold the secret of secrets. They hold the secret of the origin of everything there is" - Michio Kaku

**Eugene**

Things could have gone completely wrong. The magazine clip in the gun could have been empty. But it was loaded. His hand could have shaken in a moments' hesitation but that did not happen. It was like he was performing a morbid ballet of both violence and grace. He pushed her to the back against the door, and then he was spinning and extending his arm toward the man who had just knocked Algernon Kingsley unconscious. He pulled the trigger once. The bullet hit the man's head clean.

But as an expert in second chances, he knew it when the enemy got his too. Dr. Facilier's holed and bleeding head did not deter the man from moving his hand, which was holding his walking stick-cum-sword towards him. And his other hand was holding an amulet on a chain of some sort.

If there was anything that Eugene had learnt from his previous encounters it was the fact that the things that people hold on to keep them alive, would be the thing that will kill them. Gothel and her writing instruments, he and his delusions. This man, his amulet.

He pulled the trigger the second time, hoping this time the injury will prevent the body from coordinating with its appendages for one second so he could lunge for the amulet.

It worked. He snatched the amulet from the blinded, bleeding man. And with the butt of the gun, smash it to pieces against the floor. This was easy to do when he was already kneeling on the floor. And why was he on the floor?

The thin sword has pierced into his chest as he had lunged to snatch the amulet from Facilier's hand. Strangely, he didn't feel anything.

Meanwhile, to Eugene's satisfaction, Facilier writhed and twisted and turned to dust, along with a horrific blood-curdling scream.

"What have you DONE? You have destroyed every-"

Only after the last of Facilier's living body turned to dust that Eugene felt the slicing cold pain in his chest. The excruciating pain made him lost all force in his body.

"Eugene!" Rapunzel cried his name and got hold of his body before he hit the floor. She slid him gently on the carpet.

"Apply pressure, I'm going to get help," she said and put his hand on his chest.

"No, don't leave me," he begged her.

"I'm going to call for help," Rapunzel said and spoke into the phone on her father's desk.

"Help will come soon," she said to him as she placed him in her cradle. She now placed her hand on his chest.

Eugene tried to put everything in perspective in those blindingly painful moments. The last time this happened, everything was wrong. Rapunzel was desolate and rootless. He wasn't ready. He now knew why he was given the second chance. Unlike the last time, where Rapunzel was alone and helpless, everyone was at where they were supposed to be. Rapunzel had found her parents. His survival would only cause complications as his past was so murky. But he was thinking about her survival as well. And idea formed in his mind.

"Promise me Rapunzel, whatever happens," he said slowly.

"No! You will get through this," Rapunzel begged him in a shrill breathlessness of frustration.

"You must find a new dream," he continued painfully. He no longer had the strength to hold his wound. He was just holding on to Rapunzel's hand, feeling her warmth as he was taken over by coldness.

"I was going to say yes!"

"Promise me, or I'll stop trying," he lied to her. He would do anything to make her promise.

"Yes, I promise."

He was ready. Time to let go.

"What happened?" Algernon Kingsley woke up from the effect of the poison set by Facilier. And saw the horrid scene before him. There was blood everywhere, a bagful of dust and clothes on his desk and office floor and the horrific scene of Rapunzel cradling the bleeding Fitzherbert.

"Dad, get help!" Rapunzel yelled to her father. Algernon Kingsley jumped out of his seat and ran out of the room, yelling like a madman.

"Let me go, Rapunzel."

"No!" Rapunzel gasped and took a pen from her father's desk and began writing furiously on his arm.

LIVE. LIVE. LIVE

"No, Rapunzel. You're free – argh!" Eugene gasped as another wave of slicing pain swept his senses.

"No, Eugene. I love you. Don't leave me!"

"I love you forever," Eugene said in the last of his breaths, almost inaudible.

He closed his eyes and exhaled one last time. His head lolled to one side, chest still and body unmoving. Rapunzel did everything she could, according to her knowledge.

She could not let him go while he was already far from her, in a place beyond reach.

**Rapunzel**

It was only one week after the funeral that Rapunzel was able to get out of her room in her parents' home. And she knew what saved Eugene at the Pier. It wasn't his time to die that day. But death comes for all sooner or later. It is never tardy nor forgetful.

"Mama, I'm going to the University," she told her mother.

"I'll drive you there," Anna Kingsley offered.

"No. I'm going to take the bus."

"Call me if you need anything," her mother said and kissed her on the cheeks. Then the woman went to a drawer that Rapunzel had never opened in her own room. She opened the drawer.

"Before you go, there's something I want to give you. Maybe it's time for you to have it."

"What is it, Mama?"

"We found this in Eugene's backpack, along with his dissertation. It's a diar- a journal. I have a feeling that this is meant for you."

Rapunzel let out a gasp. But she had done crying so there were no more tears from her eyes. She looked at the book at she put it in her satchel. She didn't want to read it in front of her mama. She knew how she would end up no matter how strong she pretended to be.

"Thank you, mama," she said. She put on a white slim long coat and covered her head with a white beanie. She set out for the University. In the bus she began reading the leather bound journal the size of a man's palm. There was a red ribbon placed in its spine. Eugene used number of days instead of dates. As if he wanted the journal to be timeless. That it could go on without being bound by time.

Day 1

This is the story of how I died.

Scratch that.

This is the story of what happened after I died. This isn't a fun story and even though it is my story, it is most importantly a story about a girl. Her name is Rapunzel. But just to clear things up in the beginning, I just want to say that this is NOT a diary. This is a journ

Day 2

This is a journal. (Is this thing gonna keep on going like this?)

Anyway, this isn't my idea. This is Miss Walker's idea. She gave me this thing. Left it by the bedside with a note. She had been trying to get me to write diar- journals for years, actually since I was in elementary school. She said writing to myself can" free me from my demons". Whatever that meant.

I hated the idea. Then I got into stuff. Really complicated stuff. I completely forgot about my demons. They become me. I hide behind my demons.

But now I'm in this hospital bed. Hurting like crazy but completely luc

Day 3

Hey Punzie,

If this diary ever falls into your hands you must be asking why on earth did I not finish every of my last sentence. That's because of the morphine. It has a soporific effect. I could just fall off like that.

As I lay here bored to death, completely lucid but unable to get out of bed, I have asked myself many times. Why do I deserve this second chance?

Because I know I don't. If you have known me like Miss Walker did, you wouldn't want me to survive this.

But I think there is a reason for everything. I live to make you free. I could not die that night because my purpose is not yet done. You were alo

Day 4

You came and waited for me again. I wish I could jump out of bed and do a jig or a somersault to make you not worry about me. But I'm getting there.

They didn't find Gothel's body. I hated that. I know you needed to see her one last time even though she had you hurt bad.

For me, it's nothing personal. You know those horror movies about psychotic killers and in the end they thought they have defeated the psycho but they never found the body? No, I bet you don't. But let me tell how they all ended. Like when they have shot it and it ran into the woods, bleeding, and insides pouring out? Or when they shot at it and it fell into the water? Or they thought they had torched the building he was in? It's like that. In the final frame, the bad guy just came back from out of nowhere brandishing an axe at you. That suc

Day 5

Where was I? Oh yes, that sucks.

I still want to discuss about your Mother not being found. Maybe my last entry was a bit over dramatic. But still, you needed to see her one last time. The thing is, what if she will never be found? How will you make your peace? I don't know. Because I've never found mine. If I could spend my lifetime with you, I hope to make that peace together.

And I'm thinking if I could list statements that will hel

Day 6

List of statements that will help us find peace:

Rapunzel: I have no control over what had happened to me, Mother.

Mine: I have nothing to do with the reasons of you abandoning me, Mother/ Father.

Rapunzel: I have done nothing to wrong you, Mother.

Mine: I have done nothing wrong to you other than existing, Mother/ Father.

Rapunzel: I forgive you, Mother.

Mine: I forgive you, Mother/ Father.

Honestly, Punzie. I think you will do better than I'll ever

The bus stopped at the University gates. Rapunzel stopped reading and closed the small book. Unknowingly, a tear slipped from her eye. Rapunzel got off the bus alone. She remembered the last time she boarded that bus with Eugene, they were not talking. They were in comfortable silence. If she knew the future, she would talk to him all the time, pry his deepest secrets, make him laugh, let him make her laugh, tickle him in the goateed chin, etc. Etc. The list could go on forever.

_If only, if only_... the bane of all thoughts, she sighed.

Rapunzel walked on to the Lawn, near the river, in front of the Registry Building. When she got there, she sat on the grass, under the shady tree they had breakfast during Medieval Weekend. It was cold but she was dressed for cold and cold was nothing when she was missing him. It was like getting a paper cut when one was already being slit at the throat.

She sat down and flipped through all the pages he had written. He had written for sixty days, in short, small vignettes of thoughts. She had the urge to read them all at once. But then, she decided against it. She would read them, one day of his life for each of hers. And when she had reached the sixtieth day, she would repeat the cycle, finding new meaning, and new angles in which she could interpret his thoughts and then put their meaning into her understanding. In the spaces he had left, she would leave a line of conversation for him, as if they were talking.

Rapunzel got out her pen and opened the first page. She began writing.

Day 1

You didn't die, Eugene. You never did and never will.

Let's start this over. We had not been properly introduced.

I am Rachel Kingsley. But you can call me Rapunzel.

THE END


	40. Future Ever After

**Future Ever After (Bonus Chapter)**

"It's like the butterfly that flaps its wing and makes the hurricane. Tiny microscopic events would change the course of history. So every historical event actually happened in every possible way in some branch of this ever-splitting many worlds universe." - Joe Lykken, _The Universe: Parallel Universe_

Eugene

He woke with a start. He gasped for air as if he had been underwater for some time. He tried to make sense of where he was and when it was because this sensation of not belonging had prevailed for too long.

Another hospital room. He had been through this before. When was it? For how many times? He was dizzy and hurting. The pain was coming from his chest but the rest of his body was hurt by general numbness.

There was a girl sleeping on a long couch in the corner of the room. She had books and graphite pencils by her side.

Rapunzel.

Rachel Kingsley.

And everything came back to him.

They were together, walking towards somewhere they wanted to be. The Burns Building in the University. They had kissed on the Lawn. They walked with his hand placed at the small of her back. She looked preoccupied, head full of plans, he knew. He, on the other hand, was sorry about something. He had decided that he would hold his peace until she was ready.

They entered a room. Her father's room. The man was talking to someone whose face they couldn't see. The man who was darkness personified did something to her father, who is the Vice Chancellor of the University and the man fell into his chair, unconscious. He knew who the man was the moment that happened. The man he thought was imaginarily created to imprison Rapunzel in fear and self-loathing was real. He acted without hesitation. He pulled the gun from the back of his trousers' waistband, under his hoodie. He saw the man pointing his metallic and sharp inside of his walking stick to his chest but he did not care. He knew the man came for Rapunzel.

This evil man was going to take her, imprison her and use her for the ability that might or might not be in her. And he wasn't going to let that happen.

He shot at the man cleanly in the head but he continued living despite the initial shock. The man was holding on something. An amulet. He had a feeling that he had to destroy the amulet. And he did.

Then he felt weak and in so much pain. She was seeing him through it. He knew the end of this.

But he made her promise. And that was all that matters.

He gave up holding on to life. He let her go.

Until the moment when he saw her sleeping in his room in the hospital. And he knew that he had screwed up by staying alive.

"Hey, dude. You're awake," said a hospital attendant who had entered the room carrying some stuff.

"Hey," Eugene responded generally.

"You might wanna read this. Someone wants me to give it to you," the hospital attendant handed him a piece of paper.

"What?" Eugene was still making sense of his surrounding and the people around him even though he was already sitting up on his bed.

"Hey, don't shoot the messenger OK?"

"I'm not gonna shoot anyone," Eugene said, as he tried reading the piece of paper.

_I have chosen you as my Prince. Leave with me and be the future leader of the city._

_Julietta_

CRAP. What did he said to her when she pointed the gun to his gut. The gun that saved Rapunzel's life. Coincidences? If he had learnt anything from the past three months, he learnt that there were no coincidences.

Maybe I will, Julietta. Patience.

He had to leave or else everyone he loved would face the consequences. He had to leave.

"Here's some clothes you can put on. And your personal effects," the attendant threw a plastic bag into his face.

Eugene took them and with difficulty changed. Every time he moved or dropped his left hand he felt like was going to faint. But he had to go through this. To get out of this place.

He took one of her sketch books, planning to write a message on the one of the pages. When he was about to write in one of them, he found that she had his journal. He closed his eyes in obvious pain. He took it instead and wrote.

Day 61.

_Do not find me, Rapunzel. I am dead to you._

_Flynnagan Rider_

_Prince of All Thieves._

As he was writing, a piece of paper fell out of the journal's pages. It was the photo of him and Rapunzel in the boat down the river during the release of the lanterns. There was dried blood on it but the photo was clear. He took it and put it in the inside of his black vest, near his hurting chest.

"Consider yourself lucky man. I would do anything to be in your place," the hospital attendant said to him, obviously waiting for him to be ready and would take him out of the hospital without alerting the security or the staff.

Eugene scoffed.

"But I can see why she chose you. You're one good looking son of a gun."

Already the world was buttering up to him. It was unreal. It was crazy. Eugene was going to say to the man to get out of this mess as soon as he can, but he decided against it as he himself could not do it.

"Where is she?" Came a rudimentary question.

The hospital attendant made a gesture conveying the meaning 'outside' with his head. Eugene stared at his sleeping beloved. He wanted so much to touch her face, kiss her soft lips, and rub her hair and shoulders and back. But he couldn't. If she woke up and she had to watch him go, it would ruin everything.

He just left her sleeping on the couch.

Then he came face to face with the Mafia boss' daughter. He became her captive now. She was waiting outside. She welcomed him with a deep, lustful kiss. But he was as prone as cold dead wood. And it wasn't because he was losing the feeling in his toes. It was the deadness of feeling he felt for the world. He knew where his heart belonged but he could not reach her with his dirty hands.

"You must know that I didn't choose this path," he told her, signalling that she would have not a piece of his heart ever.

"But it chooses you," she answered.

Eugene saw familiar faces and greeted them.

"Hello, boys."

The Stabbington brothers. Their free-lancing had turned out to be a failure; they had to find permanent employment.

"Hello, boss," they answered but Eugene heard only bitterness and treachery in them.

Here we go again, he said between clamped jaws and grit teeth. The woman's hands were already all over him.

He had one hand to his heart, where the photo of the night on the release of the lanterns was kept.

Rapunzel

What do you do when someone whom you loved told you not to find him? The question never left her mind. He was beyond reach even though he was here on earth, on the same plane of reality as she was. She could not go to other side and find him when all were waiting for her in this side. She made herself busy with the pursuit of knowledge, charity and handling weaponry. When she did so, she felt in touch with his world.

What left of him were memories and his journal. He had written sixty one days in his journal that now was in her hands.

Day 60

Do you think I have a chance in asking you to marry me, despite of my weaknesses? Just asking because asking can't do no wrong. I wonder what will be your answer. I have my guesses, though:

Answer 1: YES

Answer 2: Yes, please.

Answer 3: Will you, Eugene Fitzherbert, be my lawfully wedded husband?

And how she had hesitated in answering the question. She said 'yes' when he was losing consciousness. And now, he was gone.

The entry on the sixtieth day was a marked difference from the final entry.

Day 61

_Do not find me, Rapunzel. I am dead to you._

_Flynnagan Rider_

_The Prince of All Thieves_

He even reverted to his name of disguise. Will he ever know his real name when he's called again?

Rapunzel lived on. She found many other new dreams. She travelled with her parents during semester breaks. She had seen the minarets and towers of Istanbul. She had seen the houses carved out of rocks on hillsides in Italy. She had stared at the fresco under the dome of the Sistine Chapel. She had stood while she had photos taken of her with the Stonehenge as the background. She had walked the oldest rainforest in the heart of South East Asia. And she was planning for more travels.

She had visited galleries and museums and saw all the paintings that used to be prints to her. She joined exhibitions herself and contributed her paintings of the city's aerial view from Mother's apartment window. Critiques reviewed that they were "desolate but thoroughly human." They wrote that the details of her urban aerial views are "heart-breaking but genuine." She wondered if being desolate was ever a non-human characteristic. Or being heart-broken is not genuine.

The only time she saw him was on the news. Thanks to the station BerZerkTV, he made appearances after a kind of robbery, or shootout or inquisition or court case where he sat next to Al Hapone, or next to the cat-like looking dark –haired woman. He looked good. His style was the same impeccable one, but more polished and expensive. He was more beautiful than ever but becoming more and more predictable aesthetically. He looked leaner and tougher, like he had gone through vigorous exercise. Taller. Darker. She never saw his eyes hidden under dark glasses. What was he hiding behind those glasses?

Is he ever as haunted as her by him? Did he miss her at all?

She missed him but she thought that he had changed beyond recognition. She never let him go but she moved on.

It was four years before Flynnagan Rider met Rapunzel again.

And one can only imagine the consequences.

THE END

**Author's Note:** I understand if you guys don't want to review this chapter. I mean, I've gained more than reviews, which are your thrilling support and company all this while. This is an alternative chapter. Because readers have the right to choose when there are options. Anyway, I'm crazy about the idea of parallel universes. These worlds do collide in our minds, our very own parallel universe.

A final shout out to** Alltangledup95, HollyBatali, Wicked Song, Mrs. Naara, PampleMousse07, An Unknown Foreign Beauty, Romance and Musical, Faith Rivens, AIOFanNCRM, Kyoru_KiTTy_Artist, melay8**,**LifeByTheSea, dreamerdrawerwriter7, AerrowsGirl07, SparkleWolf2000. Figurly, Wicked Song, Howlsatthemoon, Wolfram-and-Hart-Sauron Aerrows-Girl07, SWACGleek Freak, howlsatthemoon, SoWrongbutSowrite.**

You guys have been awesome.


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